I fired another set of replica cups based on originals from Viking Age Birka. I'm very pleased with these pieces. The pear-shaped piece is modeled on an example from Grave 457, and the barrel-shaped one from Grave 971.

Another cup modelled after one found in Birka Grave 971. Fully hand built, using a couple of wooden tools I made, a shell, a rock, and a piece of leather for burnishing. The marks were made with a twisted wire tool. Next step will be an open hearth firing when it is dry.

Open hearth wood-fired pottery

Vase fired in the SUNY Cortland soda kiln. I'm very pleased with how this came out

Another set of cups modeled on a cup from Birka grave 971. The original one was earthenware, and black in color (so fired in a reducing atmosphere. These are stoneware, so dishwasher safe, and brushed with iron oxide for the reddish color. Two also have manganese oxide on the rim decoration

Venetian chicken, based on a recipe from the Anonymous Venetian Cookbook, about 1390. Cinnamon, ginger, clove, and rosewater on poached chicken

This cup is a reproduction of one from Birka Grave 971. I got the dimensions right: 9.4 cm high, 8.4 cm wide at the wide point. There are slight variations from the original, but I am pleased with this result.

This past weekend, I entered a reenactment contest. My entry was a set of drinking vessels, both based on examples from about 1400. The smaller wine cups are French, and are soda-glazed stoneware. The larger beakers are beer cups from Nuremberg, Germany, from a tavern called the Wild Man.

My table setting from a medieval dinner at the end of the summer. The ceramics are all pieces I made.

The latest step in cocoa processing. I roasted the beans and shelled them. I also checked the fermented pods. It is about 2% alc, with 3 % residual sugar so it will likely keep fermenting. The flavor is really pleasant and delicate, quite different from the very tart fermented pulp and rich beans.

Cocoa bean fermentation is done! The beans are a nice dark brown. Next is drying. I’m setting the temperature at 130 F, as a research project said that 60 C is the recommended upper temperature

Fermenting cocoa beans and cocoa pods as part of understanding the production of chocolate