Minutes of May 18, 2017 Canton commons meeting

Meetings

At tonight’s solar, we had a spontaneous outbreak of canton commons. Here are the minutes from said meeting. Please read, even if you were in attendance! There were many overlapping conversations.

* In attendance: Godiva (MoAS), Anneke (incipient deputy webminister), Beatrice, Angelica (Chatelaine), Caitlin, Alienor (seneschal & webminister), Mathghamhain (youth marshal & herald).

* Anneke has submitted the warranting form & Alienor has emailed the EK webminister, Lord Greylever, to approve Anneke being warranted as deputy web minister of Whyt Whey. In related news, Alienor has emailed Lord Greylever about becoming Østgarðr deputy webminister, and Arnora has emailed to approve this position. We await Lord Greylever’s response on both deputy positions.

On Anneke’s status for holding canton officer as a resident of Brokenbridge: EK bylaws: “1. only residents of the canton/riding may hold canton/riding offices unless they choose to change their charter to allow officers other than Seneschal and exchequer to live outside of the canton/riding.” Østgarðr bylaws: “To be an officer of a canton a person must have been active in the canton three months to hold canton office other than canton seneschal which requires a six month residency.” Our interpretation is that Anneke, who has been active in Whyt Whey for much longer than 3 months, is allowed to hold canton office other than seneschal, which has a residency requirement.

* Þórfinnr has volunteered to be Deputy Seneschal of Whyt Whey. His service is eagerly accepted by acclaim. [Edit: oops, not Þórfinnr. Ibrahim, was it you who volunteered for this position?]

* The Cloisters demo at Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival, Oct 1st, is on the EK calendar. The usual planning will begin after Pennsic. Alienor has expressed our anticipation of the upcoming event to the festival coordinator, Kendall Hudson, who looks forward to our participation again this year. Please do communicate any new ideas you might for the demo before then, so we can bring our resources to bear.

* We have found a suitable location for a schola and are picking a date! October 28 seems suitable. Are there any objections? The location is McAlpin Hall, on the second floor of West Park Presbyterian Church at 86 street and Amsterdam. http://nyc.spacefinder.org/spaces/14781 Alienor and Beatrice will canvass the site soon.

Co-autocrats for the schola will be Godiva and Beatrice. Among our activities will be a “toast your failures” competition: show off a mistake you made, share what you learned from it, and drink prosecco / sparkling cider to celebrate your growth. Day board will be an extravaganza of hand pies among other suitable goodies. We are hoping to solicit pie contributions from some of our many fine bakers in the area *stares at Vika & Beatrice encouragingly making mmmming sounds*.

* Tonight’s solar generated 2 double-batches of sekanjabin, one ginger and one mint, which will be decanted into Mason jars tomorrow by Alienor and Beatrice. Personal jars will be delivered to their recipients at Viking Day demo on Saturday. The remainder will be served in Østgarðr’s camp at Pennsic. You are welcome to taste-test the results at Viking Day.

* Our next solar, June 15th, will be a garment making / repairing extravaganza for Pennsic. We are skipping the July solar, as your hostess will be out of town. The August solar will be a share-what-you-learned-at-Pennsic social. The September solar will be a knitting class taught by Caitlin, just in time for scarf-making season.

* Fencing practice in Central Park (at 81st & Central Park West) this week went well; 4 fencers in attendance. A similar number attended dance practice on the same evening nearby (at Belvedere Castle in Central Park).

* Archery practice is resuming in Staten Island on Sunday (Willowbrook Park). Please let Alienor know if you would like a ride, departing from 106th St. at Broadway around noon.

* Beatrice is leading an effort to make fencing hoods in the provincial green and white. Linen is acquired. Facebook conversation will begin among Beatrice, Caitlin, Ann, Will, Godiva and Angelica.

* Alienor is working on youth fighter tabards in the provincial green & white, which is conveniently also the cantonal green & white. Youth combat list poles and rope (both also green & white) are constructed, painted, and ready to be deployed! Huge thanks to Mathghamhain for his beautiful work.

* Our herald reports that 2 devices have recently been submitted. 2 badges are in submission. 1 device is being prepared for submission. Mathghamhain remains open to assist anyone in or out of the canton who wishes to register a device, add a badge or reformat their heraldic art for use on banners or other types of display (business cards, machine embroidery, silk painting).

* Beatrice reminds us that we need to fundraise for the provincial coronets! One idea for fundraising is a silent auction at the schola.

* Angelica reports that the last message number in the Whyt Whey yahoogroup is 11922. Alienor has forwarded the message number to Lord Joel of Vestfell requesting he run the scripts to transfer the message archives from the cantonofwhytwhey yahoogroup to our EK mailing list Whyt-whey-canton@whytwhey.eastkingdom.org.

Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival

Events

Our biggest demo (where by “our” I mean definitely Whyt Whey, certainly Østgarðr, probably the East Kingdom and possibly even the SCA itself) is what we informally call the Cloisters demo. We are a part of the Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival, now in its 33rd year. Attendance at the festival has averaged 60,000 people in its last 5 years. Our demo village is situated on the sloping lawn just inside the park entrance, a fabulous location to attract the attention of festival attendees both coming and going.

The date for this year’s festival has been set! We will be demoing on Sunday, October 1st, from 11:30am to 6pm. Full details on our demo are available at the event listing in the East Kingdom calendar.

Logistics & planning will take place in September, after Pennsic recovery. New ideas welcome — please mention them sooner than September so we can pull our resources together. Mark your calendars and help us show off the glory & gaiety of our shared dream!

Evening in the Solar, May 2017

Arts & Sciences, Meetings

Please join us for our regular 3rd Thursday of the month Arts & Sciences social gathering, Thursday, May 18th, 7-10pm. Sekanjabin and tablet-weaving!

We will meet in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21.

The evening’s menu will include petty patties — turkey in puff pastry — and salad & bread. The petty patties are courtesy of Lady Beatrice, who is also considering a repeat of the Lent Tarte for vegetarians. Lemonade will be provided. Contributions of wine and dessert would be much appreciated.

By request, the evening will include hands-on tablet weaving practice. We will have multiple looms warped and ready to weave, and will also support attendees through warping and threading the cards, as desired. Bring your questions and your experimental spirit.

We will also be making Sekanjabin! Inspired by the delectable beverage served by Þórfinnr Hróðgeirsson at the Picnic in the Ruins event he co-autocrated last weekend in April, we will produce quantities in preparation for Pennsic. Our basic syrup recipe, from Cariadoc’s Miscellany, is 4 cups sugar, 2.5 cups water, 1 cup wine vinegar, simmered together for half an hour with 1/2 cup of flavoring herbs. The classic flavoring is mint. I enjoy ginger. We are intrigued by the possibilities of basil and lemon. Bring a flavoring (1/2 cup of fresh herbs) of your choice, and come away with a Mason jar of syrup for your personal use. “Surplus” syrup will be served in Østgarðr’s camp at Pennsic.

Minutes of April 20, 2017 Canton meeting

Meetings

Exchequer: bank account is good. No $$ coming in or going out in the near future. Some talk of a schola, needs location.
Chatelaine: 2 new contacts, one of whom attended last night’s Solar.
Webminister: need deputy to train for taking over website (WordPress), editing shared Google calendar, publicizing events on mailing lists & Facebook groups. Erica volunteered.
Seneschal: officers doing a splendid job. Thanks, all!
Recording secretary: will be stepping down. Need new secretary.
MoAS: classes are going well. Please speak up if you want to teach anything. Next class (May 18th) will be tablet weaving, by attendee request.
Youth combat: marshaled at Mudthaw, will be marshaling at Balfar’s Challenge. Banner made; materials acquired for pell; materials list & construction plans for list poles (w/o stakes) drawn up.
Herald: branch arms have passed Kingdom and are being reviewed at Society level. No objections are anticipated. Still several months away. Several people both local & further away in the East Kingdom have had their arms devised & paperwork drawn up.
Picnic in the Ruins: we are prepared to supply 3 tables, tablecloths, ~10 folding chairs & 2 drinks coolers (one from Angelica). Piglet will collect & deliver to site. No youth combat at the event.
Recorder schola was a HUGE success, so much so that we will be scheduling a regular monthly activity for recorder training (& singing).

Feast for Whyt Whey Solar, April 2017

Feasts

Tonight’s tart was a mashup of a modern onion tart (Deborah Madison’s onion tart) and a medieval tart in ember day (from Forme of Curye, ab. 1390 A.D, redaction by Cassandra Baldassano).

2 large white onions, chopped
2 T butter
~1 T ginger
~1 T basil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
3 eggs
~1/2 cup currants
~1/2 lb. Gouda

Sautée onions in butter w/ spices until sweet & golden. Let cool. Whisk milk & cream together. Beat in eggs. Whisk in currants, grated Gouda, cooled onion mixture. Pour into pie crust in tart or pie pan. Bake at 400ºF for 50 minutes.

Pie crust:
130 g. flour (1 cup plus 1 T)
1/4 t saffron salt
6 T butter
~4 T cold water

Whisk flour & salt together. Cut in butter (pastry cutter is your friend!). Stir in cold water until dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, refrigerate for half an hour before rolling out into pie crust.

Serve w/ salad, bread, lemonade & wine.

Commons meeting & Evening in the Solar, April 2017

Arts & Sciences, Meetings

Please join us for our regular 3rd Thursday of the month Arts & Sciences social gathering & a canton Commons meeting, Thursday, April 20th, 7-10pm. Class will be a recorder schola, taught by Magistra Rufina Cambrensis! Commons will precede the class.

We will meet in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21.

Have you always wanted to try the recorder “some day”? Did you play some recorder mumble-mumble years ago, and would like to ease your way back in? Are you a recorder player in search of group playing opportunities?

Here’s your chance!

At Recorder Schola, we will try some tuneful Medieval and Early Renaissance pieces with parts ranging from “dead easy” to “fun and approachable” to “a bit of a challenge”. Whether you’ve never touched a recorder before, or would like to reacquaint yourself with a skill you learned in school, our Recorder Docents are ready to help you find your way and introduce you to their Recorder Menagerie. If you don’t have your own instrument, loaner recorders will be available for the evening.

Please join us — we’ll be glad you did!