Roman award scroll for Gaius

The scroll on the right is something I did for a Roman soldier persona in the SCA. The script is the kind used by Emperors on down to school kids in the late Roman empire, and nobody bothered to write neatly on paper (or papyrus, which was what was available then). The two bracelets are supposed to be armillae, a military honour which is vaguely cognate to an Award of Arms in the SCA. Apparently Gaius was extremely happy. He tracked me down online to offer me a bottle of mead, which I would never turn down! But it really isn't necessary. Knowing that he was so extremely happy is everything I needed. (And sincere thanks to Nicolaa de Bracton for fixing up my Latin boo-boos).
Green tea-dyed Arches hot press watercolour paper dry-brushed with thinned Sienna gouache to look like papyrus.

First Attempt at Mead

It takes me a long time to work myself up to trying something new. I'm always worried that I'll mess it up and end up having wasted my time and money. However, in this case, everything is either cheap or reusable.

I keep bees, and earlier this summer I was trying to do something with one of my hives (I can't remember what now), and I ended up with a frame of unfinished honey. This honey smells a little off, but it's perfectly safe to eat. I suspect there were some odd flowers or something that went into this batch. It just doesn't taste very good in my tea.

So, I saved it in the fridge until I was ready to try making mead. I have enough of that honey to probably make just about five gallons of this stuff.

Crispy veggie and herb snacks

I have a bunch of friends who are trying to go keto and/or reduce their carbs. In grain-free land that's pretty much how we roll (not always by choice sometimes). I've collected a few recipes to help deal with that craving for potato chips that will inevitably develop. For most of these some sort of mechanical slicer would be a good idea, such as a mandoline. Some of the recipes also use a dehydrator. You can use an oven as a dehydrator, but it doesn't really work as well, and it uses a lot of energy, so I've included some baked alternatives.

More mead thoughts

As is usually the case I'm not the first person to have thought about the medieval way of making mead. I came across a great post in a forum recently that really clears up all my questions. This is the kind of mead that I'm going to be making at the end of the week-

Some thoughts on mead and pre-industrial bee keeping

So, in a lot of mead recipes there's the direction to boil the honey with water and skim off the scum, which sterilizes it a bit and removes impurities. With modern beekeeping methods there's very little in the way of impurities, so this always seemed like a slightly redundant step to me. Until two days ago when I had to clean up a mess I let build up in a hive, and I ended up with almost 2kg of honey, and the associated wax... and a bunch of dead bees in it. Pro tip- bees are busy little creatures, and if you leave a bit of extra space on top for any reason they will build right up into it lickety-split.

How to attract Bumblebees to your garden

According to Hinterland Who's Who Bumblebees are native to North America (unlike honey bees which did not exist here until Colonists brought them over). They are large and fuzzy, and non-aggressive, unless you disturb their nest or swat at them (or step on them). Their stinger isn't barbed, unlike the honey bee, so they can sting multiple times if they need to. The drones (males) do not have a stinger at all. Bumblebees see in UV light so they are more attracted to blue and purple flowers, but they will happily feed off of any flowers they find.

Only 45 species of bumblebees are social, meaning that they live in hives of up to 200 individuals, whereas honeybees have colonies of up to 40,000. Bumblebees make very little honey as all but the new queens die off over the winter. They usually nest underground in abandoned rodent burrows, and they can be found in sub-Arctic to sub-Tropical climates.

Parmesan garlic basil crisps

It's as easy as this- Preheat the oven to 350F, line a baking pan with baking paper, drop tablespoons full of real, grated parmesan (not the kind from the shaker) onto the paper and flatten out a bit. Sprinkle with dried basil and garlic powder. Bake for 5 minutes. Let it cool. Eat.

You can make as many or as few as you want. Keeps for a week in the fridge in an airtight container.