First couple of weeks in...
It has been a fast study! We do six talks a day as a team on themes related to food and diet in medieval times. We speculate that the house hold are in residence and Sir Edward is to hold a feast!
Talks on the hour in the morning, we ring a bel and hope that they come.
The first talk is about menu planning and the theory of the four humours, sections of the audience are cajoled into representing them - Choleric, sanguine, melancholy and phlegmati and then we bring them to "
' balance' with menu suggestions - bearing in mind the strictures of medieval lent... this finishes with a paean to Ale! The medieval superfood that takes you through all four humours if you are allowed to go one over the eight.
The next talk comprises a tour of the kitchen and food preparation, the two different ovens, the buttery and pantry, in this talk we are very mobile walking the visitors up and down to represent lost walls and nominating likely types to be the pantler (no he doesnt look after pants) and the butler - very popular when told thst he would have to taste the wine and ale regularily for quality.
The third talk is the feast itself where we work even harder to try and bring the ruined shell of the great hall alive, engaging the visitors imagination to try and visualise the lost roof, the misding paint and render, tapestries and the dais - luckily we have a new lords chair - to provide a focus. We talk about etiquette and manners, status and entertainment in the hall and he duty of hospitality.
The three talks are repeated in the afternoon on the hours and have to be adapted for the size and nature of the audience - one talk had only two english speakers out of 16 audience members.
Between times we are mingling wuth the visitors answering questions and trying to bring the period to life.
Some days are exhilarating, some damn hard work - but- it is fun! I certainly know every stone of the castle through my thin leathr period shoes....
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