Grove Koger

Saffron is harvested from a species of crocus, Crocus sativus. At one time or another, it’s been worth more than its weight in gold—a fact due to the tiny yield from each plant as well as the arduous methods under which it must be harvested.

Each violet Crocus sativus flower blooms for only a week or two in the fall, and each produces only three stigmas—pollen-bearing structures resembling very short threads—of saffron. The flowers are harvested by hand in the morning, when they’re still closed, after which the stigmas must be plucked and dried within a few hours. You can see a short National Geographic video about the process here.

Estimates of the number of flowers necessary to yield a specific amount of the spice vary, but one that I’ve run across says that it takes about 4,600 of them, or nearly 14,000 stigmas, to produce a single ounce of the dried spice. Our little bottle of Mancha-Ora brand from Barcelona weighs a gram (that’s less than four-hundredths of an ounce), so if my math is correct, it contained almost 500 stigmas when we bought it.

Saffron is grown commercially in Iran as well as in India and the countries on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. It may also have originated in Iran, or possibly Greece, where it was cultivated in the Bronze Age. Frescoes in the Minoan palace of Knossos show saffron flowers being picked by girls and, remarkably enough, monkeys, leading me to wonder how the creatures might have been trained.

Closer to our own day, Saffron proved popular in England, with Sir Francis Drake asserting that the “liberal use of saffron in their broths and sweet-meats” made the English “sprightly.” For a time, saffron was actually grown in Drake’s homeland, with one of the principal areas celebrating the fact in its name of Saffron Walden.

Dried saffron is generally deep red in color, but its other qualities are elusive, particularly for a substance that’s so precious. To me, it smells a bit like hay or dry grass and tastes both bitter and very slightly floral when steeped in warm water. It’s best considered, I think, as a substance that enhances other flavors. We use it in paella, and find that it adds a warm, golden color and “presence” to the dish.

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A late note: Several days after I wrote the text for today’s blog, the Guardian carried a report that Spanish authorities had just arrested several people and confiscated more than half a ton of Iranian saffron that had been smuggled into Spain. The spice had been dyed to resemble Spanish saffron, adulterated with “flower debris” to increase its bulk, and priced to undercut the genuine Spanish product.

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The photograph at the top of today’s post was taken by Xtendo (pixabay.com) and is reproduced courtesy of Needpix.com. The second photograph, of saffron stigmas, is by Fotoscot, and the third, of a reconstructed fresco from the Palace at Knossos in Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum, is by ArchaiOptix; both are reproduced courtesy of Wikipedia.