Cutter, Root

Description

Boston (brand) sewing machine modified to slice candied flag root. Top of walnut (35 1/2" x 17") with molded table edge. Collapsible leaf on proper right side, 12" wide, below which are two stacked drawers with hanging knobs and brass plates. Embellished cast iron legs, 25 1/2" high; adjacent to one is a large wheel connected to the foot treadle. Sewing machine of black cast iron; the sewing end removed and replaced with a four-bladed, rotating cutting head. Wood platform with wood wedge on top and tin chute placed in front of the machine to guide flag root to the cutting device. Tin receptacle (6 3/8" high) to receive slices. "BOSTON" on the center of the foot treadle, the legs, and on the sewing machine.

Notes

In the last quarter of the 19th century and well into the 20th, financial security in Shaker communities depended on the labor of Shaker sisters. The Shaker sisters at Canterbury and other Shaker communities prepared a variety of foodstuffs for sale including candied flag root. Sweet flag (acarus calamus) was harvested, cleaned, thinly sliced, and candied with crystals of sugar. Slicing, the most tedious part of the process, was made easier by a special rotary cutter powered by an old Boston brand sewing machine. The sewing machine, given to Emma B. King by her grandmother, was converted to a flag root cutter. The part of the sewing machine that converted the rotary motion created by the foot treadle into up and down sewing strokes was replaced with a four-bladed rotating cutting head. A tin-covered shoot in front of the machine guided the flag root into the cutting blades and a tin receptacle around the cutting head received the slices. The candied flag root was packaged in boxes and sold through Shaker gift shops and the Shaker peddlers wagons. It continued to be made at Sabbathday Lake, ME, well into the 1950s.