daf bit: Bava Metzia 89

The mishna teaches: laborers are permitted to eat from what they were hired to work on, provided it grows from the soil. So a hired picker may eat wheat from the stalks, grapes from the vine, and so on. The g'mara discusses this at some length, observing that this does not include produce that does not grow from the ground, such as milk from cows. The g'mara then goes on to discuss alterations; is the laborer permitted to cook the food, for instance? The laborer may not cook the food over a fire, nor crush it with stones, nor warm it in the earth, but he is permitted to crush it between his fingers. All of this is on account of time because he is doing it while working. (Mishna 87a, g'mara 89a-b).

Pennsic

The annual post: if you're going to Pennsic, please leave a comment with the name and location of your camp, good times to find you there, and -- if there's any chance at all that I haven't connected LJ names with SCA names -- who the heck you are, please?

I'll be in Polyhymnia (sub-camp of Debatable Lands) in block N10; look for the two-story white house. I'll be arriving late in the first week, tend to be in camp in the mornings (don't come before 10) and after dark most of the time, and will be performing with the Debatable Choir Monday night at 7:30 in the performing-arts pavillion (plug, plug). I will be leaving Pennsic on the final Friday, mid-day.