Baker Craft

History

Article by Sara

The Baker Craft Hall was founded twenty turns after the end of the Ninth Pass. It was decided that the Hall would be located near Sapphire Meadows Hold, since the Hold's already-established Farmer Craft Hall would be able to conveniently supply the Baker Craft Hall with foodstuffs.

Location

Located at Sapphire Meadows Hold the Hall itself is slightly less than an candlemark's walk from the main bulk of the Hold. Although the fields that Sapphire Meadows is so well known for can be seen from the Hall, the Hall itself has several neat groves of fruit trees surrounding it that block the Hold itself from view. Once Threadfall began, several of the trees that were too close to the Hall had to be cut down, but most of them are still intact and produce ample supplies of fruit for the Hall.

Building Information

The bulk of the Hall is found in one large central building. It is two stories tall, with external walls made from the naturally reddish stone found in the area. Its roof is made of smooth slate. Two wings stretch out from a slightly taller middle section. The entrance to the Hall reveals a high ceiling--the second floor was knocked out of this section to provide the viewer with a view of the extensive dining room. The room is too large for the crafters only, but before the Plague, was used for large wedding or gather feasts. Now the crafters stay close to the far end, closest to the kitchens. Many of the extra tables have been moved to storage, and the dining room is mostly empty.

The kitchens are at the other end of the dining room. They were placed at the back of the central part of the building so the heat from the ovens could be distributed through the two wings during the winter, and released through vents at the back during the summer. Unlike the rest of the building, most of the kitchen area is still used, as the crafters take advantage of having extra room.

The Eastern wing's first floor is used solely for storage of food and supplies. Since so many crafters require access to these rooms, all journeymen and masters have keys to these rooms, as do the senior students. The second floor is filled with classrooms, where apprentices and students learn the theory behind their craft. Several classrooms are not in use.

The Western wing's first floor houses the support staff, apprentices, and junior students of the Hall. It is divided into two areas, each with their own separate hallways leading to the main part of the Hall. Each person usually shares a room with two or three others of their rank and gender. The second floor is home to the journeymen, masters, senior students, and any guests to the Hall. In times past, many of these people would have had to share quarters like the apprentices, but the extra space in the Hall has had the benefit of giving them each a room to themselves.

Bathing chambers are on the first floor of this wing: they are shared by the Hall, although there are two rooms for bathing: one for men, one for women. Excess heat from the ovens is used to heat the water while electricity from the solar panels is used to pump it into the large communal tubs.

The Hall has one building that is separate from the main Hall. This is where the herdbeasts and other domestic animals are kept, as the Hall keeps a significant supply for its own use. Some of the rarer varieties of animals can be found here, including chickens, ducks, and geese. The building is made of the same red stone of the Hall, and is roofed in slate.

Female Policy

Twenty turns before the current Pass, it was looking likely that the Hall would have to close due to a lack of apprentices and journeymen. Hallmaster Hariton, desperate to save his Hall, discovered that there was a large number of holders with daughters who would normally be entering the crafts, but were still too young to marry. Hariton decided to throw open the doors of his Hall to these girls, and train them as unranked students until such time as their fathers arranged a marriage for them. The Baker Craft was a useful craft for these future wives to know, and made them more marketable to single men.

In addition to learning the rudiments of baking and cooking, the daughters would also help the support staff of the Hall, thus learning about proper hold management. Many fathers jumped at the chance to relieve themselves of their daughters until they were of a useful, marriageable age. The tuition that was required for each year of their daughters' training was considered to be reasonable. So far, the Hall has continued with this tradition, and has made few changes. Its population is brushing 100 and still rising, if slowly.

Population and Plague Effects

The Hall flourished in the South, producing many talented Masters and Journeymen who worked all over the Continent. Before the Plague came to the South, the Hall boasted of nearly 150 residents. The Plague was as destructive to the Baker Craft Hall as it was to other Halls: many of the crafters and their support staff died, leaving the Hall at a bare 40 residents after the worst of the disease had passed.

Once the edict that barred women from crafts was passed, the Hall lost more of its residents. Eligible boys were frantically searched for apprenticeships, while the surviving journeymen and masters scrambled to recover knowledge that had been lost when older crafters had died in the Plague.

Present Day

The Baker Craft is one of the less strict crafts on Pern. While it does have formal apprentices, journeymen, and masters, there is also a large population of non-ranked female students who are equally important to the craft as a whole. This is particularly important in the South, where women are banned from most crafts.

If a woman can attain permission and the funds from her father, she may enter the Baker Craft Hall to work alongside the ranked males as a student. Since the students are all female, they cannot be ranked in the Hall, but a girl may study at the Hall until such time as she finds a husband or her father brings her home. There is some animosity regarding women who decide to stay at the Hall for longer than usual, but a stubborn student may remain as long as she is being useful, and her father does not require her presence at home. These women usually are weyrborn, have fathers who are lenient regarding their marital status, or are unable to marry due to barrenness or even ugliness.

The girls usually study there from the ages of 12 to about 16, at which time they are eligible for marriage. Baker Craft training is useful to future wives and cooks, and because of this, baker craft-trained women of marriageable age are a popular commodity.

Ranking

The ranked people in the Baker Craft follow many of the same principles of the other crafts.

• Apprentices are usually aged 12 to 18
• Journeymen from 18 to 30
• Masters are 30 turns old or older.

General (unranked) students are divided into two sections rather than three since few if any students ascend to Master level. Students switch status from Junior to Senior based on their age and not their skill. Females do not increase in rank as a student, unlike their ranked counterparts, this is because they are usually withdrawn from the Hall at age 16 to be wed, and those women that remain are seen as serious about their craft.

• Junior students are aged 12-16
• Senior students are aged 16+.

Copyright July 2002, Triad Weyrs, all rights reserved. Please do not reuse without written permission from the Triadweyrs.org Council. This notice must remain intact on any copy used at another website.

Apprentice Classes

Schedule

• Check out your apprentice's schedule here: Baker Craft Hall Apprentice Schedules

Baking

Junior Apprentice Level

• Classes focus on theory more than practice. Approximately half the class will be spent in a classroom, and the other half in practice.

Senior Apprentice Level

• Classes accommodate more practice than theory. Approximately a quarter of the class is spent in theory, while three-quarters are spent in practice.

• Daily classes do not usually produce full-sized versions of their recipes. In beginner-level classes, students will bake small amounts of their recipe daily, with one full version at the beginning of every month. This full version is what the students will be graded upon.

Cooking

• Cooking classes are mainly reserved for apprentices and junior students, as a full understanding of every part of the Pernese diet should be gained before moving onto more complex classes.
• Beginner courses cover the basics of these courses, and ensure that all students are at the same level of knowledge. Intermediate courses add on to the foundation that the beginner classes have built, and are reserved for senior apprentices, or students aged approximately 15-16.

Meats

• A popular class among young apprentices, this course teaches the preparation of various meats, including the common herdbeast, fish, and wherry, as well as the more rare poultry, ovine, caprine, and porcine, and whersport. This includes how to identify a suitable beast, how to strip and gut a carcass, as well as teaching which meats are edible, inedible, and which are the best for their purposes.
• Much of this class is spent in theory or out in the stables. Once the students do begin their practical classes, their finished products are used for their next meal: the Hallmaster has found that this is a wonderful incentive to do a good job.

Vegetables

• This class outlines the preparation of vegetables and tubers. Although many students see this as a waste of their time, it is a necessary skill for Bakers who will move on to supplying large amounts of food to hungry Gatherers.
• At the same time, this class is usually enjoyed by its pupils because it involves trips to the Farmercraft Hall, as well as into the gardens that surround the Hall. Students are taught the basics of how to recognise a sick plant, and which vegetables are good to serve with certain dishes.

Soups, Stews, and Casseroles

• This class is extremely important class for students who intend to work in small holds, or holds in cold climates. Students are taught how to make savoury and filling meals using whatever is at hand, as well as how to stretch a budget or supply of food to make it last the longest amount of time possible.
• This is one of the only junior-level classes that actually serves its products to the Hall in general. After class, the meals that have been deemed edible by the teacher are kept warm in an oven, and served for lunch or supper to the Hall.

The Pernese Diet

• This is one of the few times when Baker crafters and Healer crafters can collaborate on an issue pertaining to a person's health. After this course, baker crafters are expected to understand the fundamentals of how diet can affect a person's well-being. They are also taught which meals are most palatable to sick persons, and how to ensure that wherever they work, the people who subsist on their food are getting a well-balanced diet. This class is taught in classroom form only, with little or no practical.