John Holloway, age 10, of Butte, Mont., for his question:

Is chicory a kind of coffee?

High summer is the time for gardens    bright tended gardens in parks and back yards and wild riotous gardens along the roadsides, meadows and vacant lots. Among the wild flowers grows the chicory! sometimes tall as a' fifth grader. Its flowers are the color of misty blue eyes and they cluster close to the long, straight stems,

In summer, the roadsides are often blue with the delicate chicory;. blossom. And, if you search for it, you may find it way over the Rockies in the lush countryside of Washington and Oregon. And this is stranger than it seems, For the handsome chicory plant is a native of Europe. It was brought to the eastern states by early settlers and soon made itself at home in our country.

Then, like the early settlers the chicory started the long trek westward. Summer after summer it seeded its new plants towards the western plain. And somehow that bold little European weed manage to cross right over the Rockies and set up housekeeping along the roadsides in the northeast corner of the land. Maybe it had same help from farmers who considered it a useful weed. But there are people who think that the pretty blue flower went west all by itself.

What has alt this to do with coffee? In Europe, chicory is often used a s a substitute for coffee, The tough underground root of the chicory plant is blanched, roasted and ground lust as coffee is ground. It is boiled in hot water to make a brew which some people say is rather like coffee. Most Americans, however, consider the taste of plain chicory to be bitter.

However, many people, even Americans, like a little chicory added to their coffee brew to give it body. In any case, a certain amount of chicory is grown in America every year for this purpose. And still larger quantities are imported from the chicory fields of Europe,

Does this make you want to rush out, pull up that pretty blue weed by its roots and grind it into coffee? Andy does not recommend it. In the first place, if you do not have an expert along you may not recognize the chicory weed for sure. You may choose some other blue flower and end up with something more dangerous than coffee. In the second place, even if you get the right stuff, Andy is sure that you would make a face if you had to drink it;