{"id":7978,"date":"2026-07-01T14:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/?p=7978"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:28:24","slug":"a-weekend-of-as-in-the-barony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/?p=7978","title":{"rendered":"A Weekend of A&S in the Barony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All across our lands, guilds of artisans gathered this past weekend to work on large projects together, to turn tedium into fun and spread the work across multiple people. On Saturday, Fiber Guild came together at the home of Lady Ilsa to extract dyes from a number of locally foraged plants. On Sunday, the Debatable Brewers’ Guild set out to make nearly 9 gallons of sekanjabin syrup in preparation for Pennsic. Despite two very different goals, brewers and dyers alike spent the weekend chopping plants, watching pots of simmering liquid, and pouring off hot colorful liquids into jars and bottles (and onto the hands of their A&S Minister on both days).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a group task from start to finish, even in the pouring off of dye liquid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Under the expertise and direction of Lady Ilsa, Fiber Guild processed and extracted several gallons of dye from jewelweed stalks and leaves, avocado skins, dyer’s chamomile flowers, a mix of coreopsis flowers, and dried black walnut husks. These plants were locally harvested by Lady Ilsa and Lady F\u00edne, which was part of their appeal! All the plants were chopped up or ground to increase their surface area and cooked in 180 degree water for a few hours to extract the color from the various dyestuff. After straining out the solid plant mass, we were left with gallons of dye ready for scoured and mordanted fiber! I was surprised at the range of colors we ended the day with, as the green stalks of jewelweed resulted in a bright “Gatorade orange” and the dark frozen avocado skins turned the water a beautiful pink color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Natural dyes from (left to right) jewelweed stalks and leaves, avocado skins, dyer\u2019s chamomile flowers, a blend of coreopsis flowers, and dried black walnut husks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The actual dyeing of fiber is another step entirely, but every attendee left with gallons of natural dye to try on their own projects. Consider visiting the Open A&S Display at Pennsic to check out Lady Ilsa’s full range of dyed fibers from plants harvested from the natural lands of Pennsic before European contact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you to Sym, Owen, Michi, F\u00edne, Alric, and Ilsa for all the work you did at Dye Day!<\/em> Photo credits to Alric Smith<\/em> and Ilsa Starling<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, an entirely different group of artisans took on the task of harvesting plants and cooking them into useful liquids, this time for our collective hydration! Baron Alaric MacConnal led the charge for the production of many gallons of sekanjabin syrup, mainly for the Royal Hospitality Tent at Pennsic. The recipe has been tested and refined over a number of decades, originating from Cariadoc himself. Alaric harvested lemon balm from his own garden, Master Alastar provided dried spearmint, and the apple cider vinegar and sugar came from the collective pantries of the Guild. By the end of the day, over 30 pounds of sugar were used in the production process!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baron Alaric harvesting lemon balm from his own garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following the ancient and venerable sekanjabin recipe, the fresh and dried herbs were simmered in a solution of water, sugar, and vinegar to produce a few different varieties of syrup. For Royal needs, the Brewers’ Guild made 6.5 gallons of apple cider and spearmint sekanjabin syrup for all to enjoy. For Debatable Lands activities, additional batches were made of apple cider and lemon balm syrup, both with white sugar for a refreshing taste and dark brown sugar for the more indulgent palette. Because the Guild can’t make anything without including an experiment for science, they also infused frozen berries (provided by Thora and Dofinn-Hallr – thank you!) in apple cider and red wine vinegars for a shrub-inspired syrup to be made in a few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three different varieties of sekanjabin syrup and two shrub experiments!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The process of making sekanjabin syrup resulted in a lot of group effort to pick leaves from stems, prepare so many pots of sugar water, and wash dozens of containers in which to store all the finished syrup. Like Dye Day, the afternoon proved that tedious A&S tasks are much more fun in the company of friends, as no one wants to do brewing dishes alone. With the efforts of Dofinn-Hallr Morrisson, Thora Sharptooth, Alastar Scott McCrummin, Elsbeth Anne Roth, Myfanwy verch Rhiannon, and Alaric MacConnal, all three syrups were prepped, made, and bottled for Pennsic – totaling over 9 gallons of syrup by the end of the day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you to Alaric and Elsbeth for hosting the Brewers Guild Sekanjabin Day!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, all of the pots were washed, the bottles were stored away, and the friends traveled home. Thank you to everyone who supported the efforts of our baronial guilds and we can’t wait to see what becomes of all the fun! For me, it was amazing to see just a small selection of the many arts and sciences going on across our barony in just one weekend as we all enjoyed the summer weather and activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YIS, THLady Elinor Walden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A&S Minister of the Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All across our lands, guilds of artisans gathered this past weekend to work on large projects together, to turn tedium into fun and spread the work across multiple people. On Saturday, Fiber Guild came together at the home of Lady Ilsa to extract dyes from a number of locally foraged plants. On Sunday, the Debatable … Continue reading “A Weekend of A&S in the Barony”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7978"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7983,"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7978\/revisions\/7983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debatablelands.aethelmearc.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}