For the SCA Foresters' Guild there are requirements to progress from one rank to the next.  Æthelmearc currently is falling under the East Kingdom and the Checklist, as well as other pertinent documents with rules and regulations, can be found HERE.  

Once you swear the Forester's oath, you can work towards different goals within the guild.  This is one thing I love about some of the guilds within the SCA.  They give you tangible goals, AND have people willing to jump in and help you along the way.  (Another great guild with goals is the Company of the Silver Spindle in Atlantia.

 I took the Oath at Pennsic and now am starting on working towards Underforester.  For this you need to start a fire, cook a meal for one, have some green garb and participate in camping (yes, Pennsic camping counts).  Most of my garb is green, but the Forester kit I am building out has that goal in mind.  Currently I have green chausses and hood, along with a brown wool and blue linen tunic.  Eventually I will have a green wool and a green linen tunic as well.  I have cloth for two green cloaks as well, I just need to get them cut out.  

The next rank is Forester.  For this you need period gear and equipment (working on it).  Period shoes (have them).  Full forester garb (technically have that except that cloak that needs cut out, BUT I want to revise the garb I made this year already).  You need to be helpful and cook for a group over a fire.  And you need to start a fire with a period method.  I have done this in the past several times with flint and steel, but my technique is, um, rusty.  I also started a fire with charcloth and a magnifying glass at the Shire Day in the Park this past June.  I tried to do it today, and got the charcloth to catch and started to get my nest going but the flax that I was using as the base of the nest was not catching.  Like, it was REALLY, not catching.  It came from a very damp room and I think that it might have taken on moisture?  I used this same flax years ago with no issues but it honestly did not want to take right away even with a lighter (which I ended up using just to keep things moving.

So, enough about what went wrong, lets talk about what went right!  I had a great time.  I chose a semi-flat spot near a fallen tree in an area where there is no grass or other growth to worry about burning.  I also opted for Safety First and had a can of water and a fire extinguisher stashed nearby.  We live in the woods, it is autumn so leaves are falling, and we have not had rain in several days.  I also used some stones to build a small firebreak on the downhill side from where I was working.  

​You can see my staged area below, as well as the stages of my fire.  I had wood ready, and yes, I did use a few sticks of fatwood.  I currently do not have period cooking pots, but did use a small dutchoven, griddle and a little clay vessel I made myself (it is actually a pinch pot for early Celtic stuff, but it is what I have).  I have two trivets from Rabenwald Metalsmything but only needed the shorter one for this project.  I used a tent stake for lifting the pot around and removing and replacing the lid.

So, what was I going to make?  I wanted to do more than just make random food to fill a checklist.  I wanted something period appropriate to my persona.  So, my assumption here is that I would actually be traveling from London where my persona's uncle lives, back to his own home in York, and realistically, I was not traveling alone as that was very much asking for trouble.  We would have more than bare minimum gear with us.

So my personal checklist is:

• Period food items for my persona
• At least somewhat period methods of cooking/compiling them
• Ingredients that would be in season at the same time

​
In the end I opted for a:

• Dish of parsnips and onions
• Apples with cinnamon and honey
• Flat breads (rye and oat)
• Cheese (for this I opted for Brie that I had at home already)
• I choose to go vegetarian for this as, in additional to Lenten Fridays, there were many days during the 14th Century in England where meat was not allowed

My foodstuffs can be seen below.  Most of these vessels are NOT period to my persona, and while some are close (the glass containers), I would not be slinging those around during travel.  I would also definitely not be traveling with two heavy mortar and pestle sets, but I needed to grind the cinnamon for the apples so took them outside to work on while the fire was reducing to coals.

While the fire was making coals for me, I went ahead and started the onions in the pot with butter.  This is a modern sweet onion as I have serious sensitivity to onion and do not react to this type IF it is cooked until completely dead.  I also have some apple and butter in the earthenware pot.  I have not fire tested my own pottery yet, so did not want to sit this directly in a bed of coals at this time.

When my onions cooked down some, I added the chopped parsnips and continued to cook those close to the fire, stirring often.  When the fire died down enough, I moved the Dutch Oven to sit directly over coals.

Once the parsnips started to soften a little and the onions were VERY cooked, I added white wine, water and a bit of salt.

While this was cooking I mixed up a little olive oil into the rye and oat flour with a touch of salt and a small amount of honey.  I formed these into little patties and put them on the griddle that I had preheated with butter.  For the griddle I am using the low trivet and it is placed directly over coals.

Did I mention the apples were taking forever?  I was not quite ready to explode my drinking cup with high heat, so I ended up finishing the apples on the griddle with the flat breads.

Before dumping them from the cup onto the griddle I stirred in a bit of the cinnamon I ground.  Part of my research on medieval apothecary revealed that the cinnamon sold in the US is typically cassia, a similar plant, but not true cinnamon.  I do, however, keep celyon cinnamon sticks in the house as I have a friend who is allergic to cassia, and I ground one of those for this project.

To finish off my main course, I added the foraged sorrel as well as the harvested chives and parsley to the pot, along with a little more water and wine.  Then I did a very period thing and thickened the whole thing with bread crumbs (from old bread that I foraged in my kitchen).  I believe that bread, a staple of the medieval diet, could easily be bought in towns we would pass through, and eventually one might have an older hunk not really suitable for a meal, even while traveling. 

The photo to the right shows the veggie dish right before I added the lid and set the whole thing over coals to finish it off.

So how was it all?

Honestly?  It was excellent.  I forgot to add the honey to the apples so drizzled it on at the end.  (My persona, as an apothecary, would have ready access to both honey and several types of sugar, so sweetening a dish is not unreasonable.)

The parsnips and onions were quite savory and had an almost lemony twang with the addition of the sorrel (locally called "sour grass").  The bread crumbs thickened the broth so that it clung to the vegetables making it more "main course" to me than it would have as a soup.

The flat breads were good, but a bit crumbly.  They might be made better with a different source of fat (butter, tallow or lard), which is something I can experiment with later.  I went with the olive oil because I had it handy here.

And yes, I had help from local wildlife with my meal prep and with helping eat the rind from the Brie!

​Also, I did this in garb!

I am trying to approach my Forestry project not just as "here is how to build a fire", but "how would this forester have lived in period".  What was this person's life like?  What was their day?  What did they live in and eat?

I am, of course, learning all sorts of things along the way, particularly regarding local plants (and how they were used in period).  One thing that has really struck home is the very narrow window of availability of many things.  

Weeks ago I envisioned crafting a pottage with young broadleaf plantain leaves, the last of the wild garlic mustard and turnips.  What I did not realize then is how quickly the garlic mustard would disappear.  Likewise with the cleavers.

I would have made this earlier, but I had intended to do it over a fire in a lovely clay pot I purchased for that purpose, and there simply has been no time.  I realized that the turnips are still sitting here, so I went out tonight and gathered young plantain leaves. Many of the plants have already developed their seed stalks, but there are still much younger ones a plenty.  You can see my documentation for use of this plant in this fashion HERE. 

So I gathered those leaves, a few leaves of kale from my garden as well as parsley and cooked up a pottage.  I started with a bit of butter and a shallot.  Onions and shallots could be stored and were available for use at times other than "in season". I started this way because I am allergic to undercooked onion and I wanted to be dead certain this was fully cooked.  

Turnips also could be stored, and early spring turnips could be available at this time of year as well.  I parboiled these as mentioned in Forme of Cury and drained them. 

I used a store bought chicken stock as my base.  My goal here is not peasant food, but rather, less formal food, and I feel stock would not be unreasonable if a chicken formed part of a former meal.

Parsley I have in abundance in my garden, and kale... well, I am pretty sure this stuff never dies and would survive a nuclear war and I have excess so chose to make use of it as part of this dish.  I opted for the older, tough leaves that would be less pleasant in a salad. 

The only other thing I added was a little salt.  I have to say that this is quite delicious, and very "comfort food" in a way.  I wish that I had a nice loaf of bread to consume with it (which I might go obtain for when I have this for lunch tomorrow).

​Disclaimer: I am an amateur at woodscraft and herblore.  Nothing below should be taken as advice or recommendations.  I am merely experimenting.  Please do your own research before consuming or using any plant for medicinal purposes.
 
When I was young we called the fruit of this plant Hitchhikers because they would hitch a ride on your pant legs. This plant has also been called Goosegrass, Cleaverwort and Catchweed.  Another term for it is Bedstraw and it is related to both Lady’s Bedstraw and Madder which produce red dyes.

The plant is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia, and has been naturalized in North America and elsewhere.  

I can honestly say, that despite being very familiar with Lady’s Bedstraw as a dyeing agent, I never actually made the connection between the name and the historic use of using these plants as stuffing in mattresses and cushions.  But while walking in part of the yard that was completely full of this plant, I realized that the loftiness that it creates when locked together would be pretty brilliant for that purpose.  I read in a few online sources that it was believed that the Virgin Mary used this plant as bedding for her son in the manger.  I cannot find anything to verify how long people have believed that, but did discover that the plant is native to that region so I guess it is plausible?  I have already gathered a fair amount of this from the yard and coiled it into small nests as I pulled it and plan to stuff a cushion with it once they have died out.
 
Peterson’s Guide to Edible plants states that this plant is edible, preferably the young shoots added to salads or boiled for 10-15 minutes. (p50)  The most impressive part though is that this plant is related to coffee.  Those pesky seeds (once they are dry on the stem) can apparently be roasted and ground to create a very coffee-like brew that even has some caffeine.  While I have found nothing to suggest that that is period at all, I do plan to test it out later this summer once the seeds have matured.  The guide for medicinal use (p50) states that among other things, it was historically used for kidney inflammation and stones and that it was used for scurvy as well (which makes sense given that there is citric acid in it).

​The warnings I most often see for this one is that some individuals can get contact dermatitis from this juice of the plant.

​The Old English Herbarium (10-11th Century) recommends mixing the juice from this plant with wine to cure spider or snake bites and to drip the juice in the ear for an earache. 

Turner’s Herbal (1551CE) as well as other sources mention this plant’s use as a strainer for milk in the country, to clear it of straw or other items that might fall into it.  THAT has a very viable possibility as a future project as well. 
 
Knowing that this comes from the madder family, and seeing the numerous sources online that claim the older roots do indeed serve as a source of red dye, I immediately thought that that could become another project for this plant.  Sadly, as I was pulling this plant in the yard I discovered that not a single one brought up the roots when pulled.  The base of the stem is thin and weak and just pulled off.  To obtain roots one would have to dig for them and I don’t know that really would make it a reasonably period source for the dye given that it is supposed to be much weaker than Lady’s Bedstraw.  If I can collect some, I might still try it, but I am no longer eyeing that up as a possibility.
 
Despite the numerous historic or modern uses, I am convinced that this plant actually only serves one purpose in the universe, and that is for me to spend over half the year pulling those hitchhikers off of this guy’s undercarriage.

Persona Summary:

• This plant was likely known to a 14th Century Forester in England
• The understood properties in period might have been something that person had come across
• Plausible foraged food source, potentially used in pottages and the like
• It is possible that home goods such as cushions or mattresses could have been stuffed with this plant matter

Projects:

• Dry the plant and stuff a cushion with it to test out (Completed and can be seen HERE )
• Add the greens to a pottage
• Craft a sieve for straining liquids
• Roast the seeds when dry to make ‘coffee’ (modern, but I have to try it, lol)

​List of Resources can be found HERE

My list of resources for plants, plantlore and medicine for this project is below.  I will keep this sheet updated, and add the link to each blog post as needed. (UPDATED: September 19, 2022.)


Anglo-Norman Dictionary, University of Aberystwyth. https://anglo-norman.net/anglo-norman.net/
 
Arsdall, Anne Van. Medieval Herbal Remedies: The Old English Herbarium and Anglo-Saxon Medicine, Routledge, 2010.

Backx-de Groot, Githa. "Historical overview of herbal medicine from ancient to modern times", Utrecht University, 2013.

Biggam, Carole. "Magic and Medicine - Early Medieval Plant-Name Studies", Leeds Studies in English, University of Leeds, 2013.
 
Black, Maggie. The Medieval Cookbook, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012.

Blunt, Wilfrid and Sandra Raphael. The Illustrated Herbal (Manuscripts), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979.
 
Bremness, Lesley. Herbs, Dorling Kindersley, 1994.

Burnett, John. "The Giustiani Medicine Chest", Medical History, Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Cholmely, H. P. John of Gaddesden, Clarendon Press, 1912.
 
Collins, Minta. Medieval Herbals: The Illustrative Tradtions, The British Library, 2000.

Cogliati Arano, Luisa. The Medieval Health Handbook – Tacuinum Sanitatis, George Brazukker, Inc, 1976.
 
Dave’s Garden, Plant Files, davesgarden.com
 
Dictionary of Old English Plant Names, 2007-2022. http://oldenglish-plantnames.org/preface
 
Dean, Jenny. A Heritage of Color, Search Press, 2014.
 
Dendle, Peter and Alain Touwaide. Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden, The Boydell Press, 2008.
 
Everett, Nicholas. The Alphabet of Galen, University of Toronto Press, 2012.

Fitch, John G. On Simples, Attributed to Dioscorides, Brill, 2022.
 
Frantzen, Allen J. Food, Eating and Identity in Early Medieval England, The Boydell Press, 2014.

Getz, Faye M. Healing and Society in Medieval England, University of Wisconsin Press, 2010.
 
Hoffman, David.  The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal, Element, 1996.
 
Kiple, Kenneth F. The Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
 
Kiple, Kenneth F. The Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Galen (translation by P.N. Singer). Galen, Selected Works, Oxford University Press, 1997.

Getz, Faye. Healing and Society in Medieval England: A Middle English translation of the pharmaceutical writings of Gilbertus Anglicanus, University of Wisconsin Press, 2010.
 
Greco, Gina L and Christine M. Rose. The Good Wife’s Guide, Cornell University Press, 2009.

Green, Monica H. The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 2001.

Hall, Alaric. "Madness, Medication - and Self-Induced Hallucination? Elleborous (and Woody Nightshare) in Anglo-Saxon England, 700-900", Magic and Medicine: Early Medieval Plant-Name Studies, University of Leeds, 2013.
 
Henisch, Bridget A. The Medieval Cook, The Boydell Press, 2009.
 
Hoffman, David.  The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal, Element, 1996.
 
Hozeski, Bruce W.  Hildegarde’s Healing Plants from her Medieval Classic Physica, Beacon Press Books, 2001.

Hunt, Tony.  Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England,  Boydell & Brewer, 1990.

Hunt, Tony. Plant Names of Medieval England, D.S. Brewer, 1989.

Hunt, Tony. Three Receptaria from Medieval England, The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages at Oxford, 2001.

Landsberg, Sylvia. The Medieval Garden, University of Toronto Press, 2003.

Lang, S. J. "The 'Philomena' of John Bradmore and its Middle English Derivative: A Perspecitve on Surgery in Late Medieval England", University of St. Andrews, 1998.
 
Lonicer, Adam. Kreuterbuch, kunstliche Conterfeytunge der Bäume, Stauden, Kreuter, Getreyde, Gewürtze, was printed in Franfort by Christian Engenolph, 1587.  (Additional versions of this book were still being printed into the 18th century.)
 
Mabey, Richard and Michael McIntyre. The New Age Herbalist, Collier Books, 1998.

Mäkinen, Martii. "Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals", University of Helsinki, 2006.
 
Matterer, James L. Tacuinum Sanitatis in “Gode Cookery”, 2009.  http://www.godecookery.com/tacuin/tacuin.htm
 
McKerracher, Anglo-Saxon Crops and Weeds, Archaeopress Publishing, 2019
 
Meyer, J. E. The Herbalist, Meyer, 1960.

Middle English Compendium, University of Michigan, 2022. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary

Mirrione, Claudia. "Theory and Terminology of Mixture in Galen", University of Berlin, 2017
 
Mount, Toni. Medieval Medicine, Amberley Publishing, 2016.
 
Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, Touchstone, 2008.
 
National Audubon Society.  National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Knopf, 2001.

Norri, Juhani. Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary in English, 1375-1550, Ashgate, 2016. 

Obaldeston, Tess Ann (Editor), Pedanius Dioscorides (Author), Dioscorides: De Materia Medica, Ibidus Press, 2000.

Paavilainen, Helena M. Medieval Pharmacotherapy: Continuity and Change, Brill, 2009.
 
Pavord, Anna. The Naming of Names, Bloomsbury USA, 2005. 

Peterson, Lee and Roger Tory Peterson.  A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America, Houghton Mifflin, 1978.
 
Petrides, George A. and Janet Wehr.  Peterson Guides - A Field Guide to Eastern Trees: Eastern United States and Canada, Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
 
Pettit, Edward Thomas.  A critical edition of the Old English Lacnunga in BL MS Harley 585, King’s College London, 1996.
 
Plantnet.org.  Plant identification application.
 
Pollington, Stephen.  Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healting, Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011.
 
Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus (4th Century CE), 1428-1500, Publisher - Johannes Philippus de Lignamine, 1428-1500.  Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/365881
 
Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus (4th Century CE), Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1431, 1070-1100, Canterbury, Digital Bodleian. https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/98127ed0-4bde-41e0-a93a-98a185b01de8/surfaces/3ec57965-769e-4ed2-8573-16fe862c7d49/ 

​Redon, et. al. The Medieval Kitchen – Recipes from France and Italy, University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Reed, Zsuzsanna Papp. "'Other Plants I Can't Name for You in English': The Plant Composition of Monastic Herb Gardens in Late Medieval England".

Singer, P.N. and Philip J. van der Eijk. Galen: Works on Human Nature - Volume 1 - Mixtures, Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Di Gennaro Splendore, B. (2021). The Triumph of Theriac, Nuncius, 36(2), 431-470, Brill.
 
Sullivan, Karen. The Complete Family Guide to Natural Home Remedies, Element, 1997.
 
Touwaide, Alain and Peter Dendle. Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden, 2008.

Trease, G. E. and J. H. Hodson. "The inventory of John Hexham, a 15th Century Apothecary", Medical History, Cambridge University Press, 2012.
 
The Tudor Pattern Book, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1504.
 
Wildflower.org. Plant Database, The University of Texas at Austin.

Zupko, Ronald Edward. "Medieval Apothecary Weights and Measures: The Principal Units of England and France", Pharmacy in History, Volume 32, Number 2, University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. JStore Link.

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Because this plant is damaging to the environment, I started pulling it up by the roots where ever I found it in the woods here last year.  I removed huge piles of it (and ate huge piles as well, usually sauteed with spinach or other greens from my garden).  My efforts did do at least some good, as I was able to cut the amount that sprang up this year in half.  Onward with this year's weeding!

I uprooted a fair bit of garlic mustard today, and also collected some to add to ingredients from my garden for some cheese and herb hand pies.  My thoughts are that a Forester who rode out to survey his territory every morning would be taking a meal with him so I thought I would both used this foraged item (which was available in medieval Europe) and incorporate it into a portable food source.  Note that this project today is less about redacting a truly medieval recipe, than it is about eradicating a plant that is damaging to the local environment (read more HERE), and making use of a foraged item (as well as random leftovers foraged from my fridge, lol).

So, to that end, I made hand pies that I might craft again when I have the opportunity to do a garbed woods walk with friends.  For the filling I used 6oz of cream cheese (softened), and chopped up two small fronds of parsley, a handful of large spinach leaves, a few chives and the leaves of quite a few Garlic Mustard plants.  I did not note quantities but you can see what I used in the provided image.  I mixed the chopped greens, salt and pepper as well as one egg into the cream cheese and added in a hefty tablespoon of freshly shaved parmesean.

For the pastry, I used 1.25 cups of flour (about half wheat, half white), 1/4 teaspoon of salt, a stick of butter at room temp, cut into small cubes, and 3T cold water.  I mix the flour and salt and then when I add the cubes of butter to the flour I mix them in with my hands, pressing the butter and flour together between my thumb and forefinger.  I work it until the flour and butter is a grainy mixture with some pea sized lumps. I also had a package with about a heaping tablespoon or so of commercially grated parmesean cheese in it that I needed to use up so I mixed that into dough as well.  I have no idea of anyone in the middle ages added hard cheese into crust but it makes a divine pie crust so I used it (sharp cheddar also works well in a crust).

At this point I added in the 3T of water, but I will note, it was almost too much, so I added in a little more flour and, well, pretty much spilled too much into the mix.  This left my dough a bit too dry, but I rolled with it anyways at this point.  I left this to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes while I mixed up the cheese and herb mix.

I rolled out the dough and used a plastic lid to cut circles that I filled with the cheese and greens mixture, rubbed a bit of water around the edges and folded in half, pressing the seam with a fork.  I had enough space on my pan for 5 or so pies so made that many and turned the remaining crust into a small tart.  I could have gotten about 7-8 4.5inch circles out of the dough I made had I done all hand pies.  I brushed the tops with an egg wash and I baked them at 375 degrees F until they were lightly browned.

The pastry is very light and flakey (almost going into puff pastry territory rather than like a denser pie crust).  I over stuffed the hand pies and did not well seal them so they were some what bursting while hot but hold their shape very well once they have cooled down.  They taste FANTASTIC and I will absolutely make these again in a month or so with whatever greens and herbs I have in the garden (or woodlands) at that time.

Persona Summary:

• This plant was likely known to a 14th Century Forester in England
• Plausible foraged or grown food source, potentially used in pottages or where greens are needed

Projects:

• Remove the weed as I see it due to its invasive nature in the US
  • ​Ongoing work
• Cook with the plant
  • ​Completed, see above​

​​
​
​List of Resources can be found HERE