What can I bring to eat?
For the Dawn Lands LARP, we try our best to have food available for players to purchase - either from a tavern or other food vendors. That may not always be an option, so bringing your own food to events is welcomed and encouraged. We like for Dawn Lands to be as immersive as possible, so foods should reflect that if the player is able to do so.
For overnight trips or weekend trips, packing modern food that can pass as medieval food is ideal. You’ll be able to find the following foods at most super markets:
-Loaf of Bread (think of those round, peasant type loaves)
-Fresh Fruit (apples, oranges, pears) -Dried/Smoked Sausage/Meat of some sort (summer sausage, salami, pepperoni, jerky) -Dried Fruit (figs, apricots, mango, pineapple, strawberries)
-Granola Cereal (or bars)
-Olives-Pickles
-Wax Wrapped Cheeses or Hard Cheeses
-Crackers
-Trail Mix/Nuts
-Honey/Jam
Cheese might be a bit harder, because it can spoil easily or dehydrate, but the wax wrapping typically helps with that - Baby Bells are my favorite to bring. With all of the listed items, you can assemble a charcuterie board quite easily, which just so happens to have a long history with the working class. A lot of that seems like snack foods, but that’s not a bad thing as they can help keep you going during all the questing and fighting.
You’ll need to bring a feast kit as well - plates, bowls, utensils, mugs, cups, and a basket to carry your items in. In my personal feast kit I have: wooden bowl, wooden plate, table cloth, candles and candle holders, matches, utensils, ceramic mug, metal shot glass, drinking horn, cheese cloth, cloth napkins, and beeswax fabric for covering my mug with.
Cheesecloth is very nice to bring because you can wrap your food in cheesecloth, then wrap it in burlap, and then put it in your basket. This helps to keep foods fresh and most items do not need to be refrigerated overnight. The burlap and cheesecloth also help to keep modern packaging concealed. Pickles and olives can be wrapped in parchment paper or stored in stone jars if you’d rather that as opposed to keeping them in their glass jars.
Now, having said all of that, food nor equipment have to be period correct - we only ask that you keep in mind not to take away from the atmosphere and try to help it. If you want to cook at your campsite, bring whatever you’d like to eat/cook - chili, stews, noodles! Just clean up after yourself. If you’re not one for cooking, pre-packaged meals that only need hot water added are easy. If you have a camp cook with your group, treat them well. If you care not for period foods and wanna eat your crisps and drink out of a plastic bottle, that’s ok too - throw all of your trash away and keep the site clean. It’s important that you are able to eat foods that you enjoy and that can keep your energy levels up. We don’t want anyone getting grumpy from lack of foods.
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