Mandy Broach, age 11, of Florence, S.c., for her question:

WHAT IS SAFFRON?

Saffron is a food flavoring and also a brilliant yellow dye. It is made by drying the stigmas and part of the styles of the purple autumn crocus.

It takes just about 4,000 individual purple autumn crocus flowers to produce a single ounce of commercial saffron.

Saffron is used by many chefs in cooking. It has a very special flavor. It is also used as a coloring agent in certain kinds of candy.

People in Europe and India use more saffron to season foods than do the people in North America. The crocus is cultivated for commercial purposes in France, Italy and Spain.Crocus is the Latin word for saffron.