The saffron harvest

What it is

The saffron crocus has lilac petals, yellow stamens and three long red stigmas. It is sterile and sets no seed, so it is multiplied by dividing its corms, the bulb-like stems underground. Fields look bare all summer. Flowers appear suddenly in late October and November. Roughly 150,000 flowers or more are needed for a kilogram of dried saffron. The threads give food a golden colour, a bitter-sweet taste and a smell like hay and honey.

Where it is grown

Iran produces the great majority of the world's saffron, mainly in the Khorasan region in the north-east. In India it is grown in Kashmir, on the raised fields around Pampore near Srinagar, and Kashmir saffron has a geographical indication. In Spain the centre is La Mancha, which has a protected designation of origin. Greece grows it around Kozani, Morocco around Taliouine, and Italy near L'Aquila and in Sardinia. Afghanistan has become a notable producer around Herat.

How the harvest works

Flowers are picked at dawn, before they open fully in the sun and wilt. Baskets are carried home, and the family sits round a table pulling the three stigmas from each flower, a job known in Spain as the monda. The threads are dried the same day, traditionally over gentle heat, losing most of their weight. The town of Consuegra in La Mancha holds a saffron festival in late October with a contest for the fastest pluckers.

How to take part

1. Visit Pampore in late October or early November, or La Mancha in the last week of October, to see fields in flower.
2. Go to the fields at sunrise. By late morning the day's flowers have been picked.
3. Buy whole threads, not powder, from a cooperative or a named producer.
4. At home, steep a pinch in warm water or milk for twenty minutes before cooking with it.

Good manners

• Do not walk into a saffron field without the farmer's leave. The flowers are the whole year's income.
• Do not confuse it with the autumn-flowering meadow saffron, which looks similar and is poisonous.

The flowers

Saffron crocusThe purple autumn flower whose red stigmas yield the spice saffronCrocusSmall corm-grown flowers in white, yellow, orange or purpleAutumn crocusA lilac autumn flower that blooms before its leaves appearCrocus cartwrightianusA small autumn-blooming crocus from Greece with vivid red stigmas

Sources and further reading

• Saffron on Wikipedia