This past New Year’s, we had friends over who made the most delicious paella dish. Since then, I’ve been thinking about saffron. It is a very expensive spice that is made of the dried stigmas of a particular crocus. I started to wonder what kind of crocus produced the right stigmas, and if I could grow it in my climate.
It turns out that the correct crocus is the Crocus sativus. It looks a lot like the regular purple ones that are popping up right now in the early Spring. The sativus crocus blooms in the Fall instead. After peeking at quite a few sites on the internet, I realized that I could grow these crocus bulbs right here in Brooklyn. Very exciting!
I ordered 10 bulbs from Marde Ross & Co. I’ve had to wait a bit because of our hard winter, but I’m planning on planting them in the big pots that hold my dwarf apple trees. I need to rig a netting barrier to prevent the squirrels from digging up these fairly expensive bulbs.
The first season, I’m told not to expect many blooms. Each year the plants multiply and produce more flowers. It will be fun to try my hand at saffron production.
I had no idea…I always heard that saffron was from far-off lands, end of story. I’m excited to see if this works!
Yes. Do update us in the Fall. Interesting.
Wow, that’s so cool. I’ll bet you’ll be keeping an extra-close watch on your squirrels.
I was in Istanbul last year and while I was at the spice market, I found out that there are lots of different grades of Saffron. Iranian saffron was the most expensive. There is also a spanish saffron and a turkish one. I have purchase crocus sativus bulbs from this site before. http://www.mzbulb.com/dp.asp?pID=F61580 They have good quality bulbs but a little pricey.
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