The Sweet Taste of Early Summer

Fresh Fava Beans
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

Fresh fava beans are an ephemeral joy. When I eat them, I feel the rhythm of the seasons flowing strongly through me. They are also extremely nutritious, containing high quantities of protein, fiber, iron, and calcium. I imagine that my medieval forebears had many of the same thoughts that I do about fresh favas; even if they didn't know the names we've given to this host of nutrients, they must surely have appreciated how humble beans could make them feel after a long winter and spring.

To use favas, buy much more than you think you need and remove the pods. Then blanch the beans - 1 minute in boiling water, strain, and immediately put into cold water. Now you can slip off the tough skin of each bean. I then cook them in butter or grease (or with bacon) with any of the following: onions (these have caramelized shallots), garlic, salt, pepper, or other powdered spices.

Seed Cake

Seed Cake
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

Inspired by descriptions of medieval round seed cakes, and the "how-many bread" mentioned in the novel The Pillars of the Earth, I baked this loaf using mead and cider barm, white and whole wheat flours, honey, salt, and caraway, anise, and grains of paradise for the seeds.

It turned out to be extremely delicious!

I don't know if how-many bread is actually period, but in Pillars, it's presented as a medieval midsummer custom. You ask someone a question, like, "how many children will you have" or "how many years until you are married" and they take a bite of the bread. Then they count how many seeds they find in their bite, and that's the answer. I find this to be one of the most delightful ideas ever.

There is good documentation for round, sweet seed cakes, for example Chaucer mentions them. I haven't researched whether these are really bread or more of a confection, but later (16th/17th c) recipes are for fancy bread. So, long story short, I decided a sweet but plain seedy bread would be appropriate for earlier periods.

When nerds run amok

Flax
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

I am growing flax in a container on my porch. A plastic tub like this just needs some holes drilled in the bottom and some bricks under it for drainage (use the lid as a tray). This is actually my failed compost bin -- the "soil" is a mix of potting soil, a few vegetable scraps, the detritus from a bouquet of roses, charcoal, and a huge quantity of bunny poo and wooden pellets (from the bunny poo box). I wouldn't eat anything I grew in that much poo, but it's perfect for fiber. The flax seeds I used are just ones from the natural food store. This entire project cost me something like 38 cents for the seeds and 50 cents for the bricks.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

I made a hood

I made a hood
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

Finished back in February.

Pardon my French, but this thing is kind of a suck-fest. The neck is all wrong (it bunches up unattractively) and I made the head part too long from front to back. The pointy bit didn't really work, either. Also, I have decided finally and forever that machine sewing is bad news.

A good argument for why you should make a prototype first! This is the prototype (it's cotton that was on clearance), and I learned a ton making it.

What I had a really hard time with was finding good information on 13th century hoods. There's lots of stuff on later hoods. My overall findings (mostly based on looking at the Maciejowski(?) Bible) are that hoods during this period should have a short cape and a short pointy-bit. I made the cape very long on this one, though. I also didn't find much evidence of buttons, but some images of hoods from this period seem to suggest that their open in the front and held closed at just one point (a button? ties? a brooch?)

On the upside, my lady is allergic to wool and this is functional if imperfect, so she'll at least get some use out of it. It's pretty warm and cozy, especially with the too-long cape.