Your post should include:

*The name or description of the item
*Where/how it can be purchased
*Cost
*Why you like it, or a review

Since it's my idea, I'll get the ball rolling:
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* "The Golliards" CD

*Independently pressed by the Red Company's "Brother Geoffrey ", contact him for a copy (Geoffrey Adams fmarini@mail.sdsu.edu)

*$16.96

*Review:
It is played (for the most part) on appropriate instruments (I'm not sure whether the style of wire strung Clarsach <Celtic harp>they use is really documentable before the mid 16th century, I'll have to look; but even if it was around, it is still seemed a little out of place amongst the rest of the early period instruments used. A smaller, gut strung harp with a less bright tone of the 'gothic' type might have seemed less jarring)
On the whole it is well played and presented. Of the 2 CD's presented for review, this was the best. Continuing on the 'nit-picky' side, all the instruments used, including the drums and vocals all come off in the same high tenor/descant register, and are consistently a little thin and 'wispy' for my tastes. The performance also seemed a little dynamically 'flat'.
I'm a fan of the fuller bodied approach to this repertoire, with lower drums, and more separation between the voices carrying different parts and a little more dynamic variety.
Overall, it is generally authentic, competent and quite listenable, I could easily recommend it. The largest draw back being it's sort of overall 'vanilla' flavor, and the fact that the vocals seem a bit on the untrained side.

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*"La Notte Dei Tavaliere"

* Send payment to Paul Ash, 85-68 113 Street, Richmond Hill, NY 11418

*$12 includes shipping

*Review:
Lets see..... the boy obviously listens to a lot of Lorena McKennit....:-) He is a pretty good Hurdy Gurdy Player. I had one for several months before I traded it away, and I never got that good with mine. It is a more difficult instrument that it might seem (at least in my limited experience).
Most listeners will probably find this easier to listen to than they would "The Golliards", but it is about as authentic as chocolate covered bananas at a feast.
The artist turns everything from 13th century Spanish pilgrim songs to 17th century English contra-dance into belly dance tunes ( in my experience, the greatest and most common sin amongst SCA musicians).
I'd like to hear the Hurdy Gurdy track separated from the drum; without the "squeal and wiggle" drum beat, the whole thing might have come off better. If the drummer had shown a little restraint, or studied simpler background rhythms, I might be able to recommend this recording anyway. As it is I could only recommend it to fans of New Age and those SCAdians who just can't be made to listen to period music in any other
form.

Off hand, neither of them were bad, the one was more marketable, the other was ostensibly more authentic. With a little more variety in tone color and slightly better supported vocals I could recommend the Golliards highly.

(Thanks to Crispin for his honest reviews. I asked him to review these as he's knowledgeable about music and I am not.)
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*The Medieval Woman Calendar

*Available through Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761118373/o/qid=975994248/sr=8-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_3/107-9114641-5596569

*$8.95

*Review:
Illuminated and illuminating, here are women who did it all, while still holding together the fabric of society. Bursting the conventional "biology equals destiny" belief, here are women who are writers, women who are musicians, women who are healers, midwives, hunters, merchants, and powerful, self-sufficient leaders.

Re-creating their world in a calendar of dazzling beauty is THE MEDIEVAL WOMAN, with images culled from oil paintings, illuminated manuscripts, altar pieces, and other artwork. Sidebars from historian Teresa Leslie expound on a new theme each month. The calendar is printed on parchment- patterned paper with a fifth color of gold throughout.

In my world, this calendar is always a welcome gift, a joy to read and a lovely wall decoration. At under $10, it makes a wonderful gift exchange gift for just about anyone.

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Those are my suggestions! I'll look forward to other's contributions!

Here's more good gift ideas:

General repair kit - Male
Fill a linen bag or small basket with:
*Scissors (period-looking)
*Various weights linen thread, cord, string- wind these on a wooden spindle or bobbin.
*Awl
*Hole puncher
*Variously sized needles
*Needle case
*Beeswax / archer's wax
*Leather thongs

General repair kit - Female
Fill a linen bag or small basket with:
*Scissors (period-looking)
*Various weights linen thread, cord, string- wind these on a wooden spindle or bobbin.
*Awl
*Variously sized needles
*Needle case
*Beeswax / archer's wax
*Pins (no plastic heads)

Gwen

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Design Tuscano has some really neat little nesting boxes that have a medieval feel to them.

Also some nice medieval themed prints on canvas. I will rumage through the latest catalog tonight and post info.

The met has some nice jewelry.

There are tons of CDs and books. I suppose it all depends on how serious or lighthearted you wish to be.

Design Tuscano
http://www.designtuscano.com

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
http://www.metmuseum.org/store

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
http://www.mfa.org/shop

They have a really neat triptych. Hand carved, folding gilt frame surrounds three panels depicting a nativity surrounded by guardian angels. Based on 15th c. Byzantine icons, each handcrafted panel is mounted on olivewood and finished with 24k gold leaf. An original work of art stamped with a certificate of authenticity from the Ministry of Culture in Greece. Opens to 12" square. (5255010) $99.00

Lots of neat little knick-knacks as mentioned above. Some replicas, some medievalesque.

Enjoy!

my medievalminded friends and I always exchange small gifts for 12th night. Thing is, there's LOTS of us (my list is about 20-30 bodies. fortunately bunches of those are couples, so that makes it a bit easier ), so we need to keep it WAY cheap. To this end, the tradition has started taht it would be small, VERY inexpensive and handmade if at all possible things. Just a little treat to let them know we were thinking of them in the holiday season.

Some things I've done in the past....
1. homemade mustard, according to medieval recipes. This makes up REALLY easy, and I can it in small canning jars.
2. Hugos hypocras recipe. Buy a bunch of bottles of cheap burgundy (Gallo is cheap and comes in a neat bottle). Make up the hypocrass. Soak off the lables forthe bottles, make up a new one on the computer and rebottle. I have people who ask for this every year
3. This year its home made yellow plum ginger jam for everyone
4. several handmade brass straight pins for pinning on sleeves, veils, etc
5. homemade soap, wrapped in pretty tissue paper
6. home made marchpane, shortbread, fruit cake (there are some wonderful medieval and elizabethan recipes), etc.
7. home made challah
8. buy a stack of the GOOD flour sack towels, or cut and hem large linen squares. Make up a "do-rag kit", ie a dish towel and some typed up instructions on how to make it into a headdress
9. pickle carrots and/or mushrooms (another one that folks ask for every year )
10. dip candles, especially to fit someones candle holder specifically
11. a firestarter kit is a great gift...you can put together a flint, a steel, some tow and some charcloth and put it into a leather bag or metal tin. You can buy the kits already put together from Townsend and Sons or you can assemble your own for about half the cost from Dixie GunWorks or the blackpowder shows we have in the late summer.
12. its rather modern, but I have friends that kill for a can of homemade dolce de leche and I put it into a decorated brown paper bag with some crisp green apples.
13. Lucet or fingerbraid some lacing for gowns or hose points.
14. make some metal aiglets for lacings
15. Buy inexpensive wood beads and make paternosters. If you loosely knot the thread, they'll be able to slide the beads, but if it breaks, they wont lose the beads.
you can also make the beads out of fimo carefully chosen to resemble ivory or coral.

whatever you give, its neat if you can make the wrapping part of the gift. I will hand hem linen squares for napkins, or use tissue paper and tie on a small cookie cutter, or tasting spoon, a small bunch of dried lavendar from your garden, or other trinket as a gift topper.

its not the money you spend, its the thought that goes into it. A way to show someone that you're glad they're your friend and that you're looking forward to the upcoming year.

Can you post the recipes? You may want to start another thread for these)

12. homemade dolce de leche
Isn't this some sort of chocolate/caramel stuff?

Thanks for all the great ideas!!

as for dolce de leche, its a thick milk carmel made from sweetened condensed milk. Its VERy popular in Argentina. Its not even close to medieval, but very popular in my circle (especially on strawberrys and fresh baked bread. yum!)

Hagen Daaz even has a new flavor of dulce de leche ice cream, but there's not enough carmel in it for me .

quote:

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Originally posted by hauptfrau:
[b]6. home made marchpane, shortbread, fruit cake (there are some wonderful medieval and elizabethan recipes), etc.

Can you post the recipes? You may want to start another thread for these)

12. homemade dolce de leche
Isn't this some sort of chocolate/caramel stuff?

Thanks for all the great ideas!!

Gwen[/B]

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Maybe we should start a recipe thread or should I make a Forum dedicated to recipes?

Just a thought-

quote:

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Originally posted by hauptfrau:
"Religion and Philosophy" isn't a very popular forum- you might want to combine it into another forum and give the space to recipes.

Just a thought-

Gwen

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get me and gwen started and you could easily fill a forum

Don't think our server is the cause for subcyber travel. I think it is an increase in network traffic. I am having difficulty getting other sites today not just FS.

We will be moving shortly to a new host and upgrading our forum software which should be more server processor friendly.

MORE GIFT IDEAS-

*Marzipan- you can even buy this ready made everywhere from candy shops to Cost Plus

*Sugared spices and fruits for eating with the hyppocras

quote:

---

Originally posted by hauptfrau:
OK, you need to post the dolce de leche recipe, since I've thought of 10 things to do with it.....

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ok, this is really embarassing, but I WARNED you it wasnt very medieval...

Dolce de Leche

1. take a can of sweetened condensed milk.
2. place a folded kitchen towel in the bottom of a large stock pot.
3. place your unopened can(s)of milk on the towel.
4. Fill the pot with water.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Turn heat down slightly and boil gently for no less than 5 hours.
7. Take GREAT care that the pot does not boil dry!! as long as the can is totally submerged in water, it will not get above boiling temp and so will not explode. (little bit of physics there). If the pot boils dry, it WILL explode and it will be sticky gooey black burnt sugar everywhere.
8. Let the pot boil as long as you care to...the longer it boils the darker the carmel will be. I have found that if you let it boil more than about 8 hrs it gets too dark for me. Boiling about 6 hrs and turning the heat off but leaving it covered overnight works well for me.

thats it! the condensed milk has now magically turned to a wonderful rich dark carmel. If you chose to cook it a long time it will be positively smokey.

Best on fresh chewy bread (thats what they do in Argentina), fresh strawberries and/or crisp green apples.

Thought I'd nod in--

Fabric (particularly unbleached linen) would probably be a gift that anyone on this list would welcome. It can be had fairly inexpensively at The Linenweb Site.

BYW, My father is on the mend. Thanks for your prayers/good thoughts.

Robert Coleman, Jr.
The Noble Companie and Order of St. Maurice

Those who beat their swords into plowshares end up plowing for those who don't.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fire Stryker:
Hi Robert,
we missed you. We were concerned and are glad to hear your father is on the mend.

I agree, linen would make a great present.

---

...which brings us to a story! Last spring, while shopping at our local Hancock Fabrics, we came upon a bargain---Nearly twenty yards of 72" wide navy blue felted wool for what amounted to five dollars a yard. We bought the entire bolt, took ten yards for ourselves and gave the remainder to a couple as a wedding gift. We made matching 12th century supertunicas out of the wool. They're the best pieces of clothing I own.

Maybe I'll get lucky again, and will be able to catch another break on fabric...then I could do something like that again!