p7, 
in the world, and to most of us has a slightly unpleasant, musty 
flavor. We have however used tiny young leaves on thin bread 
and butter, for tea; and some like a bit minced fine in chicken salad 
chicken broth. Its two foot growth is graceful and shrubby if 
not allowed to go to seed, and the blue green of the maidenhair-like 
foilage is lovely both in the garden and in flower arrangements. 
It is a shrubby perennial easily grown from seed or division. 
Cut to two inches in the early spring for thicker growth. 
36. SAFFRON (Crocus sativus) is used to flavor and color certain 
dishes especially used by the Latin race. Over 3,000 Ibs. have been 
imported annually into the United States from Spain, Italy, and 
France. Used since ancient days as a dye, the stigmas of these 
autumn-blooming crocuses must be pinched out with the finger- 
nail and dried for use. Bouillabaise and saffron buns are colored 
and flavored with saffron and it is also used to some extent in 
medicine as a stimulant, for example, as a tea to “bring out” the 
S 
measles on a small boy. 
The corms should be planted in late spring or summer. Blooms 
appear in October. Approximately 60,000 stigmas are needed to 
make a pound of saffron, so a false saffron, Safflower or Carthamus 
tinctorius, is usually substituted for true saffron in cooking. 
37. SacE (Salvia officinalis) is an important seasoning herb for 
pork, and 1s also used as a meat preservative by the packers. It 
has a long record for preservation of human life as well, the 
couplet 
“He who would live for aye 
Must eat of sage in May.” 
bearing out the tradition of Old Robin Scarlet, who lived long 
enough to bury all the inhabitants of the cathedral town of Peter- 
borough, England, twice over! For he attributed his long life to 
a diet of bread and butter and sage. A Swiss friend of the writer 
says that when he and his sister played in the garden, as children, 
their nurse had them rub their teeth with sage. “The toothbrush 
for cleanliness” she said, “‘the sage leaf for beauty.” It is good 
with goose, turkey, and pork, partly for the flavor and partly for 
its digestive quality with fat meats. A leaf rolled in with the 
stuffing of “‘veal birds” gives just the perfect seasoning. Sage 
