Historic Interpretation

Martin and Vickie (Rumble) Brady had each been involved in authentic historical interpretation for some 30 years when they met at a living history at Ft. King George in Darien, GA.  In 2010 the two became a couple and the adventures really began!  Get comfortable and have a brief look at the talents these two were blessed with.

Both have sewn top notch historic clothing for themselves, family members and for the general public.  Vickie made clothing for docents and volunteers at historic sites including Ft. Henry (1812) and Cracker Country, (1898) the latter located in Tampa, FL.  The following photos show a dress worn in a Scottish wedding in the mid-1700’s and the copy which Martin made for Victoria to wear in their wedding.

The Original dress, on loan to a museum in Inverness, Scotland

Martin’s version of the dress worn by Vickie in the couple’s wedding

Cutting out the lining

Sewing the dress

Other interests include numerous aspects of 18th and 19th century material culture and reproducing artifacts found in museums, antique stores, etc.  Vickie has published books under the name Victoria Rumble and Thistle Dew Books which can be found on the “Shoppe” page of this blog.  She has demonstrated historic cooking techniques in the U.S. and Scotland, presented at various historical conferences, and civic organizations.  She has appeared on both local and national television with live cooking demonstrations.  Vickie studies wild plants once commonly gathered for culinary use, some of which were brought to the U.S. with the earliest settlers.

Martin does leather work, historic Native American crafts, sewing, makes moccasins, leggings, and shoe packs, and made the cow hide trunk Vickie packed her wedding ensemble in.  He has presented to school groups, at historic sites, and for history programs on USMC bases.

The Brady’s are poulterers, raising a wide assortment of heirloom poultry and they maintain an heirloom garden in which are found some rather rare items by today’s standards such as salsify, sorrel, lovage, tree collards, ground cherries, etc.  The produce, eggs, and meat are transformed into culinary masterpieces.  Updating their 1960’s home purchased in 2014 and building pens and houses for the farm critters is an on-going project.  There are plans to transform a bonus room into an 18th century interior to house the overflow of collections.

Crafts include quilting, wool strip rug hooking, making center seam moccasins and leather shoe packs, historic Indian crafts, soap-making, rendering lard, period herbal remedies, woodwork, preserving, pickling, and drying food, making floor cloths, candle-making, flavoring extracts, period spice blends (going back to 1300), flavored oils and vinegars, broom-making, natural dying, etc. etc.

Building chicken houses with nesting boxes.  Need one?  Email us!

Bourbon red turkeys

On the set of WGN Chicago

Martin enjoys Pennsylvania Dutch chicken corn soup with saffron after photos were taken of the cooking process for an article on growing and using saffron published in “Early American Life” October 2014.

Garden bounty

Somebody wanted her breakfast

Swiss Chard and tomatoes grown on my patio surrounded with wire to keep the geese out.

Pear Honey – Tree to Table

But first we pick the pears

Beet greens, fried green tomatoes, tomato and basil, and fried chicken

The first time I cooked for Martin, steamed puddings flavored with fresh orange, made at Ft. King George.