Cooperative Creativity

We had a joint mini-meeting of the Cynaguan Brewer's Guild and the Herbalist's Guild at Investiture. Brewers need herbs.
And that got me to thinking: Cooks need herbs, too. And they need cheese.
We have all these guilds that do things, and we don't often do them together.
Mostly, I think, that's because guild membership ebbs and flows and people don't like to commit to things. But wouldn't it be really fantastic for the cooks to be able to put on their feasts using components made or grown by the other guilds?  I was really tickled to make a couple gorgonzola cheeses for Collegium this past fall; so much so that I set about making a couple basket cheese and a couple MORE gorgonzola, originally for the Perfectly Period Feast but since we're having our Emeritus Feast in our local Shire of Mountain's Gate the cheeses will be at our local Feast instead.
It's so easy to get pulled in several directions in the SCA. It's important to me to learn things, and to get better at them, but there are some things I just can't get excited about on a daily basis. Like making garb - not exciting to me. But attempting to make gruit ale, even when I fail, is immensely interesting. Cheesemaking is interesting. Fermenting food is interesting. Fostering cooperation and promoting fellowship is interesting. It is said that people born under my stars become Jacks-of-all-trades, but Masters of none. That has been true of me, mostly because I become bored and move on to something else. But the art and science of creating food and drink in cooperation with microflora is challenging and fascinating, so there's a possibility that I may have found a niche. If it is possible to promote the humans working cooperatively, too, that would make me feel very good.

It's really illuminating to return to the ol' blog and see that the last post I made, nearly 18 months ago, contains the exact same feelings on community as I was pondering today.
I need to keep better care of this blog. It's better for my mental health than Facebook and I've never been much of a Twitter(er), although I do enjoy the tweets of others.
So, here we are in January of 2013! My locavore diet has gone out, and back in, and back out since last I visited. I'm now on a waiting list for a gastric bypass, mostly because I would very much like to be around for a few years longer than I can otherwise expect at my current weight.
We now have an old horse and two wether goats. In further anxiety-provoking news, our elderly neighbor across the road cares for them while we go to events.
SCA-wise, we're kind of in a holding pattern. Miach is still fighting. I'm still Principality Chirurgeon. I've begun to think about my own relationship to the SCA vs. my relationship in tandem with Miach. Not because there is any trouble with Miach, but because I'd like to make my own place on my own merits. I've become enchanted with fermenting, and interested in pursuing this as a Period craft. Miach is now our Shire Seneschal, and our Shire is struggling. We lost our friend, Michael Pringle/Mike Johnson, a year ago. His wife, Miriam/Roz, moved to Caid. Geoffrey of Clan Fergus and Oian, and their wives, do not play any longer although Geoffrey speaks of taking it up again at times. Wylowen and Kaitlyn got married, and they still attend some events, but work and finances keep them busy. We had several new folk that came to the Shire during a period of divisiveness and ended up aligned to Chateau de Camville, the household of Sir Richard de Camville, and identify much more strongly with their household than with the Shire. (For which, by the way, I cannot blame them. The Shire floundered badly for the past 3 years, lacking Geoffrey's vision and Oian's steady all-inclusiveness.) With Roz moving to Caid, An Tellach Mor is down to just Miach and I. Morgan and Siobhann re-converted to Christianity, and more recently have expanded their Hold and concentrated on the Barbarian Freehold. They pulled out of An Tellach Mor, and the rest of the An Tellach Mor hearths formed Black Sheep Keep due to the schism. We have remained friendly with all, but ultimately An Tellach Mor is now gone, as An Triobhais Mor and Clannada na Gaedelica before it. At this point, the next household will be founded by us if and when Miach is knighted, and only then if he wins Coronet, and our vision of it is younger. Meanwhile, Gunther and Juliana rarely attend events any longer, and the Squires have varying levels of involvement. Titus moved to the East, and asked Gunther to take over his squires (Edmond and George), and I truly believe that the only reason Gunther and Juliana are still even minimally involved in the SCA is because Gunther feels an obligation to his own, and Titus', squires. Things would not be going any better had Miach become Sir Richard's squire, because Sir Richard and Alloria are now only doing Chataeu functions, which are pretty much private collegiums, and their mundane horse club. If Miach had picked Uther, things might be headed slightly up, but Uther and Kara don't attend events like they used to, either, and have been concentrating on the live steel game of Battle of Nations. So, we went from having some powerful allies to being on our own, more or less, in the space of the past 2 years.
I successfully made some good Gorgonzola cheese, and the Blackberry Mead that I was sure was going to be vinegar 'cause I left it on the lees for months and the airlock went dry a couple times, turned out pretty good. And it's the little things that keep our spirits up!