Saffron Blooms

The short time saffron is in bloom really makes harvesting the spice a joy rather than a chore. My babies bloomed for only about a week a few weeks back and I got nearly half a gram for later use. Since it's often sold by the gram that's pretty good.

I was talking with some friends recently about my harvest and how much I got from it. They were surprised to find out that it's still so expensive to purchase. After telling them about the work that goes into producing so little they understood a little better. Until recently it was about as expensive a gold. Now it's running around 1/4 the price of gold, still nothing to sneeze about. The middle looks like it's made of gold but I don't think a jeweler would fall for it. What else can you pull out of your garden that's that valuable?  If people knew how expensive it was there would probably be more saffron growers around and of course the price would start to go down. I'm happy just providing enough for what we use which usually isn't much.

It's almost a shame to harvest them since the flowers are so pretty. The vibrant purple color of the flowers really pops in the garden. You can easily see them when they're in bloom as soon as you pull up to the house.

They didn't flower last spring but we'll see if they flower this spring. Still not sure what prompts them to flower.

Harvesting Saffron

Harvesting saffron is time consuming and can be a test of patience.  I've looked as several sources but there doesn't seem to be an agreement on when saffron is supposed to flower.  Some say it flowers in the fall, some say in the spring and others say it flowers both times.  I can say for certain that mine does flower in the fall since that's when it flowered for me but I have yet to see it at all in the spring since I planted it this year and last spring it wasn't in my yard.

Unfortunately I only had one flower show up.  Again sources are divided as to how long it takes new plantings to flower but I hope more flowers will follow this early bloom.
After harvesting, large batches are heated on a very low temperature, sometimes dried in the sun or over a candle.  I can only guess that this preserves the flavor and color while preventing it from deteriorating from the moisture.  Since I only got three threads I didn't bother yet worrying what to do with them.

All of the bulbs seem to have divided and I might have do dig some of them up and replant so they aren't so crowded and can keep dividing. This will probably be a summer project when they go dormant.

Spice of a tree

There are many herbs and veggies out there that get tons of attention. We all know about parsley, mint, onion, beets, carrots, rosemary, thyme and a whole slew of others. One of the often left out of the delicious seasonings comes from a tree. You're probably thinking about cinnamon or cloves, maybe even cocoa.
When I was little I was camping with my family and my mom foud some of this wonderful bit of the plant family and made some tea. It was one of the oddest taste and yet familiar. It was sassafras tea, ok so not really a tea but see my other blog about that.
It was once the main flavoring of rootbeer but is now illegal to put in there since it is a very mild narcotic. I guess some narcotic is too much for the FDA. Amazing how some things still get through... Anyhow that wasn't the wierdest part. We probably know various plants that make pretty good flavoring from the root but this tree has another use. An entirely different seasioning comes from it's leaves and you can buy this in the store, at least down here in Texas. If you've ever heard much cajun music you are bound to have heard of the "filé gumbo." Pronounced fee-lay it is the dried leaf of the sassafras tree. I have found a local sassafras tree on a nearby street and as soon as I muster up a little more boldness I'm going to ask if I can rake the yard for this wonderful spice. Ok, maybe not rake the yard but at least pick up a few leaves for drying so I can have fresh filé.