madPete

Mine arrived today - thank you for the excellent reference! ( I guess the spray will get shipped along with something else)

$60 is a bit steep, not gonna deny people because they have a modern trencher from the thrift store. I like your philosophy, A true scientist!

William says they will have porta-potties but your question is excellent. Will they have them on Wed/Thu/Mon for those arriving early, leaving late?

First, this is an optional buy-in. You dont have to buy in to any specific meal or any meals at all. Every single Mercury member will be from out of town and we dont have the luxury of our own kitchen or knowing what grocery has gluten-free/peanut free whatever to meet specific allergy requirements. If this is a concern, I recommend individuals make their own plans or review closely what we propose as a menu and ask questions at the event. We'll do our best when we get there to choose ingredients wisely, but the likelihood is we wont know specific brand ingredients until we get to the local grocery and see what is available. I'm not indifferent to the issue, my GF has very specific requirements which she will need to deal with separately. But we dont pretend to be a restaurant, cooking meals is an auxiliary thing and thats asking a lot for ad-hoc cooking volunteers who also want to participate in the event. We need a basic menu first, for people to decide if they will participate. Balancing a meal with sides like greens, veggies, bread etc is the magical part that helps accomodate, but needs planning. i.e. Greens/bread with every meal, possibly a meat free stew, with optional chicken or beef on the side that can be added to portions. We do welcome suggestions, If there is something we can cook that satisfies the majority of the crew, we'll do that. I have some period ideas like the above stew, as well as possibly a macaroni and cheese pie in a crust (not dessert) and possibly onion pie (potatoes, eggs, onions, apples, cheese) along with some sides including a meat dish. Iron Jon made a braised cabbage dish one year that was excellent. So please make suggestions that can accommodate most or all of the group.

William says there are 17 Mercury members signed up for the event. It's not likely that they will all buy in for every meal, or even buy-in at all, and we haven't asked for a count yet. Probably cant get a confirmed count until we get the menu a bit more nailed down. Having said that, if you know you want to participate in at least one meal, let me know and I'll add you to the list so we can get a rough head count. For now I think we limit this to Mercury members so it doesnt get out of hand. We're looking for at least two cooks/helpers at each meal so you wont be alone at breakfast, and not likely you will have to cook for all 17. I think we will set out the dishwashing tubs and pyrates can clean their own dishes.

hmmm.. I bet I could make those square trenchers with a router bit. Just what I need, another project...

The trenchers you find in thrift stores rarely look like the one in the original post, but they are flat and take very little room in luggage, unlike the bowls.

I believe this is the office entrance inside the fort... and the parking lot near the entrance... Thank You Chris!

More pics: from the Ramparts looking left to right...

More pics... This is left to right Looking at the entrance to the fort from the parking lot.

Half Pint does nice work! This is a deal compared to commercial sources which are more expensive and machine sewn

I'm building a spreadsheet to include: 1) Menus/schedule Breakfast: Fri/Sat/Sun Lunch: Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun Dinner: Thu/Fri/Sat 2) cooking tools and who is providing Utensils: Stynky Cooking pots/coffee pot: Chris camp grill: Chris Dutch Oven: ? dishwashing basins: William and/or Stynky 3) Volunteer list Breakfast: Stynky Lunch: Dinner: Pete, Tudor Smith 4) Shopping List TBD

Awesome Stynky! LIke I said, trying to keep breakfast/lunch simple, but if you want to offer the deluxe breakfast, knock yourself out! Stynky's Cafe - Open 24 hours I'm not real concerned about completely period utensils... beggars can t be choosers. And since I cant bring the stuff on my flight I'm a total beggar LOL. Let's see if William comes up with the copper tubs, we may not need the plastic ones.

Perfect!

Excellent, we can use the help! Trying to keep breakfast and lunch as simple as possible. Dinners will be the main effort. Waiting to hear from William regarding the baking ovens, I'm told we can use them, but I know they do demonstrations too so we dont want to disrupt them

NOTE: I merged the "Meals In General" topic into this topic, since the meals are for Mercury Crew only This is a bit of a brain dump of thoughts on meals. Altho Iron Jon is coming to the event, he has had major surgery so I doubt he's up for cooking, and Mr Mallet isn't coming at all, the last I heard. So that leaves us needing new blood to plan and execute meals. I'm open to helping plan and execute meals, but I'm flying in, so short of running for groceries and helping cook, Im limited in what I can bring. We need some items for cooking implements. We do have some items being lent to us by Chris (who is local in Mississippi) but we may need a few additional items. see pic below for items already supplied. Not pictured is a large grill for the pots. To that end I'd be very pleased if Mercury members would chime in on questions below: 1) Volunteers willing to help on the cooking end? [Stynky, HalfPint, Tudor Smith, madPete, micahelsbagley, Fayma] 2) Can anyone bring cooking tools like spatulas, spoons, sharp knife for vegatables, beef etc? [Stynky] 3) Anyone have a Dutch Oven they can bring? (Nevermind, working around this) 4) Ideas for simple, but period meals? (some ideas proposed) 5) Does anyone driving in have some large tubs for dishwashing and rinsing ? [WIlliam? or Fayma) 6) There are a few tables in the barracks, but we are definitely needing tables [Chris, Fayma] We may be able to purchase fresh bread and butter at the fort. There is a group there that demonstrates this. We might even be able to use the ovens when they are fired up. [After contact with the person that does the cooking demonstrations, its too warm to fire up the ovens that time of year] KISS I'm hoping we can Keep It Simple Stupid for breakfast and lunch, but a bit more substantial on dinners. Also would like to keep costs as minimal as possible. Maybe something like $5 breakfast/lunches. i.e. bagels/oatmeal/fruit for breakfast, sandwiches or the like for lunches, and $10 for dinners (stews, period dishes, greens, etc) depending on numbers and final menu. We also need to keep in mind the vegi-saurus' in the menus

My son played Viola, trying to get him to learn a couple tunes and bring it to Dana Pt

If yer shirt is long enough, ye wont need a lining!

Forgot about coconuts! Casket Chris whittled one into a cup a few years back at Belmont Pirate Invasion. I have a large and small Onion bottle, but I wont fly with them. I fill the large one with Madeira and the small one with rum when I drive to events.

I found these heavy canvas duffels on ebay. Various sizes/colors are available. I bought the small size 36" long by 12-15 inch diameter. These were about $29 each and have a handle on each end, in the middle and have a double heavyduty zipper. Havent broke one yet. I made leather name tags and just used sharpy to write the name on them

These really are the bees knees for traveling. They are lightweight, absorbant and period! What are they? a lightweight linen towel in sizes from a handtowel up to a full beach towel size. Best in subdued colors or colors that are at least represented in the era Who wants a modern terrycloth towel hanging out to dry on their tent line after spending the effort on kit and so forth? https://www.chairish.com/product/2749420/turkish-oyster-linen-and-cotton-towel?clickId=4441956025 https://www.westelm.com/products/organic-turkish-tassel-towels-t5370/?catalogId=71&sku=1348722&cm_ven=PLA&cm_cat=MSN&cm_pla=Bath > Towels&adlclid=ee94fcb07155145974d0981f2e2bd9a5&adlclid=ADL-d8fabf98-02c3-40a7-b79d-8727bea8749c&cm_ite=1348722_458012940 William sent me a small beige one that is so perfect for traveling. I found the brighter colors at goodwill, but I'm sure they will fade a bit. oh, and some bio-degradable soap/shampoo that we used at Key West with the makeshift showers... https://www.rei.com/product/730925/dr-bronners-organic-liquid-soap-travel-size?CAWELAID=120217890000936060&cm_mmc=PLA_Google|21700000001700551_7309250020|92700061989944825|BA|71700000074512915&gclsrc=3p.ds&gclsrc=ds&gclsrc=ds

My singing voice has a very narrow range, so I never spent much time on music. Now I'm wishing I had learned an instrument...

We missed you Stynky. Next time we'll send some goons to kidnap ye!

keep the photos coming!

Nice and Stripey! Good Job!