So this project has been evolving for a while, but now it’s finally starting to pick up steam to a point where I can start posting more often! Since I’ve originally crafted this idea, it’s grown quite a bit. I am still going to be testing recipes from Gervase Markham’s book, The English Housewife (first published in 1615), and I will still be sharing what I learn with you on this blog.
I’m also very excited about the tangible portion of the project, which has evolved into a fun little side project in and of itself. As you might remember from the ‘about’ section, I’m going to be calligraphing and binding a small pamphlet-style book that will include the recipes I write about on here. After talking with my Center for the Book committee, we’ve expanded this even further! Now, it’s going to include the recipes and illustrations (think an old-timey Mollie Katzen cookbook), along with a print-on-demand version including information from the blog and extracts from the original Markham text. I am also looking into making an e-book version, and I hope to make that accessible across as many platforms as possible (I just published my research blog on the Kindle store, and I’m hoping to do that with this blog too!)
I would love to hear feedback from blog readers on this: what could I do to make this type of project more interesting from the reader’s perspective? Are there other new (or old) media you think this type of project would be a good fit for? How do you think using digital media assists in our understanding of these older texts?
Modernizing Markham 