I haven’t been to Pennsic in about eight years, but I had been planning outdoor cooking experiments and making garb the whole time, so I had too many options to pick from rather than too few.
One of my big goals was to get photos of all my Pennsic garb, but like always, I hardly ever had my phone out and ended up with very few pictures from the two weeks.
My first packing plan was to only take the hottest weather clothing and use the extra space for more cooking plans, but then I was lucky enough to check the weather forecast twelve hours before I would leave because it had changed a lot from the long range forecast! Apparently we’d be getting all the weather, including some cooler temperatures.
And once I was there I hardly even cooked because one of my campmates has devised a whole meal plan for war and I could barely offer help with dishes and some side dishes.
When I was cleaning out my refrigerator if perishables before I left, I turned all of the lingering perishables into quick pickles.
I was working with five big carrots, one and a half daikon radishes, 1 garden cucumber, 8 persian cucumbers, 1 purple onion, 1 yellow onion, 3 Vidalia onions, and 2.5 heads of garlic
1) carrots, daikon, yellow onion in black vinegar
2) cucumber and purple onion in red wine vinegar
3) a chunk of ginger in the bottom, carrots, and daikon in rice vinegar
4) carrots and cucumbers in rice vinegar
5) carrots and cucumbers and purple onion in rice vinegar with a dried chili
6) carrots and daikon in seasoned rice vinegar
7) fine matchsticks of daikon and carrot in rice vinegar
8) Vidalia onions, garlic cloves in malt vinegar
My other preparation ahead of time was to make little gifts I could give to camp mates and people displaying their Arts & Sciences research in competitions. I’m very proud of myself because I always forget tokens of appreciation.
I bought tiny glass jars with corks, and then I special ordered some washi tape to make a personalized label – and ended up getting the spacing perfect!
A few years ago, a retired former coworker of mine gave me some flavored salts that she had made (mostly with dried citrus zest), and that seemed like a reasonably stable gift that most people would not be allergic to. And I have been harvesting and drying more thyme from my garden thanks can use it give away, so that was that I decided to flavor my salt with. As for which salt to use, I’ve been very excited recently to have found a coarse salt that ALSO has iodine, so that was my choice (and yes, I did tell people about the iodine). And that was VERY well received as a gift. I’ll need to think of something similar to do next time I go.
I took some pictures of setup the first couple days because I am amused by the tents with the big vehicles next to them. My car went to parking as soon as I finished getting my rent up and stuff inside. I don’t know if you can see it in the pictures (I can because I know it’s there), but we camp with a small river that has been cut in the middle of the space. I ended up having to park on one side and carry my stuff to the other side. But the advantage of having a river is that when we set up our shower, we don’t need to dig separate drainage! (But we do need to clear the weeds and from the trench to make sure it flows smoothly)
I didn’t end up taking any classes this year. I’ve had a very low activity couple of years, and I was finding that just hanging out near camp, staying hydrated, and slowly stretching and strengthening really helped. But there were people I had wanted to see, and I did get to see them regularly and I also got spend time hanging out and sewing during the hottest party of the day at my favorite temporary Turkish coffee shop: Kafe Merhaba!
The only cooking experiment I did manage to do was making white rice in an unglazed clay pot over a charcoal brazier. And it didn’t happen the way I thought it would (with two steps at two different heat levels), but instead I just guessed that it was time to peek and see how it was and it was a already done. Did I remember to time the process? No. So I have no idea if it can be replicated. Did I take pictures to document the experiment? Nooo… But I think some of my camp mates did.
It was a lovely and cozy two weeks spent with some great people I only see when I can get to this event, but there’s no other group of people I would rather camp with.
I did do one new thing this year. I volunteered to help with scoring the A&S competitions (both the main one and the one out together by the collegiate discord. Since I’m still fairly new, my task at the big competition was to review the comments given by the team of judges to make sure they were not rude and did not contain offensive language. It was a fun team to work with, and I’m glad the competitors get to have that level of protection.
For the college level competition, we only had three entrants and almost a dozen judges eager to support the collegiate participants. We decided to switch from a competition to just giving commentary and feedback because all three were spectacular and there wasn’t much point in trying to rank them.
I think I’ll try to help out with both of these in the future as well.
But that was my Pennsic experience for this year.