PA German Dutch Amish Wooden Urn FOLK ART Saffron Box

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This is an mid 1900's saffron box measuring 5 inches tall and 2 3/4 inches in diameter. Nice lucky clover and flower folk art designs. Clear lacquer over designs. Turned construction. Tight fitting lid. Used to hold dried saffron for baking. Excellent vintage item. Not a repro and I purchased this from an Amish home in Lancaster County, Pa. Excellent condition and closes tightly with minor signs of use. BOILED CHICKEN POT PIE 4-5 lb. stewing chicken Salt & pepper to taste 1 tsp. saffron (optional) 1/2 c. celery, diced 6 potatoes, grated 4 sm. onions, diced 1/2 c. parsley POT PIE DOUGH: 2 c. flour 1/2 tsp. salt 3 tsp. shortening Cook chicken, celery, onions, saffron, salt and pepper until tender in water. Remove chicken from bone. Put back into broth with potatoes and parsley. Cook about 20 minutes. Add enough water to cover by about 1 inch and bring to boil. Dough: Mix ingredients, roll out on floured board. Cut into 2 inch squares. Drop into boiling chicken mixture. Cook, covered, 20 minutes. Saffron Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. The flower has three stigmas, which are the distal ends of the plant's carpels. Together with its style, the stalk connecting the stigmas to the rest of the plant, these components are often dried and used in cooking as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron, which has for decades been the world's most expensive spice by weight, is native to Southwest Asia . It was first cultivated in the vicinity of Greece.Saffron is characterised by a bitter taste and an iodoform- or hay-like fragrance; these are caused by the chemicals picrocrocin and safranal. It also contains a carotenoid dye, crocin, that gives food a rich golden-yellow hue. These traits make saffron a much-sought ingredient in many foods worldwide. Saffron also has medicinal applications.The word saffron originated from the 12th-century Old French term safran, which derives from the Latin word safranum. Safranum is also related to the Italian zafferano and Spanish azafrán. Safranum comes from the Arabic word a ?far (????????), which means "yellow," via the paronymous za?far?n (???????????), the name of the spice in Arabic. Biology The domesticated saffron crocus C. sativus is an autumn-flowering perennial plant unknown in the wild, and is a sterile triploid mutant of the eastern Mediterranean autumn-flowering Crocus cartwrightianus. According to botanical research, C. cartwrightianus originated in Crete, not--as was once generally believed--in Central Asia . The saffron crocus resulted when C. cartwrightianus was subjected to extensive artificial selection by growers who desired elongated stigmas. Being sterile, the saffron crocus's purple flowers fail to produce viable seeds--thus, reproduction is dependent on human assistance: the corms (underground bulb-like starch-storing organs) must be manually dug up, broken apart, and replanted. A corm survives for only one season, reproducing via division into up to ten "cormlets" that eventually give rise to new plants. The corms are small brown globules up to 4.5 centimetres (1.8 in) in diameter and are shrouded in a dense mat of parallel fibers.After a period of aestivation in summer, five to eleven narrow and nearly vertical green leaves--growing up to 40 cm (16 in) in length--emerge from the ground. In autumn, purple buds appear. Only in October, after most other flowering plants have released their seeds, does it develop its brilliantly hued flowers, ranging from a light pastel shade of lilac to a darker and more striated mauve. Upon flowering, it averages less than 30 cm (12 in) in height. Inside each flower is a three-pronged style; in turn, each prong terminates with a crimson stigma 25-30 mm in length Cultivation The saffron crocus thrives in climates similar to that of the Mediterranean maquis or the North American chaparr... read more

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