Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1920 — Straw Kitchen Utensils [ARTICLE]

Straw Kitchen Utensils

Junior'Red Cross School Children in Italy Make Colanders and Sieves. Collestrada, Italy.—The Junior Red Cross school at 'Collestrada, Italy, is making kitchen utensils from osiers and .withes to supply the countryside hardware that- it is impossible to buy from stamping mills in Italy since the war. Collestrada is in the heart of Umbria, where straw plaiting and osier weaving are two of the principal industries. The orphans at the Collestrada school make colanders and sieves and market baskets in sufficient quantities to furnish the neighboring villages. The reed receptacles are woven very tight and serve for flour sifting. This is an important utensil in a part of Italy where the flour is ground on hand grist mills and contains many coaree particles. Another method of making these sifters is to weave three •thicknesses of horsehair across a wooden hoop, which sifts as fine as the best articles manufactured with steel wire. vs J . > - The woven receptacles of Umbria are not exported from Italy this year because the country can use the entire output to replace those formerly madfe of metal by Italian stamp mills. Even the large output of the Junior Red Cross colony at Collestrada, which approximates a hundred paniers

and colanders each week, Is entirely absorbed by the needs of the nearest villages. The children learn to do the wofk in a short time, for the only exceptional skill required is in choosing the material carefully and soaking the splints and withes correctly.