PlantFiles: Saffron Crocus
Crocus sativus

I purchased 12 corms at the Landis Valley Museum Harvest Days last year for about $5. They are all blooming now, November 4th, and I have the threads drying in my kitchen. I learned from the vendor that they grow well in Lancaster County PA and that the Amish still grow them for their own use and as a small cash crop.

Thomas Jefferson used to grow saffron at Monticello. Before I heard that I always thought that it needed a warmer climate, but it grows fine here in Virginia. Beautiful purple flowers whose orange filaments you can use to flavor your paella if you are Spanish or dye your robes a golden yellow if you are a Buddhist monk.

It is the traditional flavoring for Cornish pastries, supposed to have come to Cornwall in England when Phoenician traders exchanged it for tin to make bronze during the bronze age. Other stories have it brought to England by the conquering Romans. It was a valuable spice in Imperial Rome. Or it returned with the crusaders from the middle east. The Arabic word for yellow is za'fran.

It blooms in October when color is always welcome. In the picture you can see the three red-orange threads coming out of the flower--that is the saffron. You can harvest it and still leave the flower in place. I let the filaments dry inside on a plate for two or three days and fold them by pinches into small squares of wax paper to be stored in a covered spice jar.

Brian Mathew, in his 1982 monograph "The Crocus", says that he is fairly sure that C. sativus is an ancient selection of C. cartwrightianus, which grows around Athens. (It is possible that this has now been established by DNA analysis, but I don't know.) I have never been able to grow C. sativus here in Newfoundland, either in pots or outdoors, but I do have an alternative source of saffron: C. nudiflorus, which also has a very interesting history. (I've added this plant to the lists.)

Other sources state toxicity in large doses(much higher than normaly used), maybe a concern in houses with small children. Also, most sources claim plant is triploid and sterile, no seed produced, propogation only by corms.

Growing your own saffron is highly economical! A few corms are enough for most family's yearly use. They multiply pretty fast, so a relatively small investment will quickly pay for itself.

One cautionary note: many US catalogues sell "Autumn Crocus" when they are actually Colchicum. Be very sure to properly identify the plant. Colchicum is very toxic! Crocus sativus has 3 stigma that loll out of the flower; colchicum have 6 that stay inside the flower.

A cormous perennial of unknown origin (possibly Greece and Asia Minor) but widely grown for its valuable spice.

Has thin, needle like, dark green leaves. Bears fully open cup shaped, scented, lilac-pale purple flowers and a 3 cleft bright orange stigma which is the saffron.

Flowers September-October

Likes a well drained, gritty, friable, poorish soil in full sun. The corms are summer dormant and they need to be kept dry in this stage.

Saffron is an expensive spice, each flower yields just 3 strands so it have to be grown on a large scale and is hand collected even in our age of technology. 60,000 stigmas are needed just to make 1 lb of saffron and 1 acre of ground only yields 4lbs.

Saffron was primarily used as a dye, food colouring and as a perfume in ancient times, Persian kings wore slippers dyed with saffron. Pliny wrote about the flowers being strewed on the floor and in fountains to give off its perfume.

It was also used in medicine, it was thought to be able to treat jaundice, insomnia, measels and small pox.

Its most common modern use is of course in cookery where it imparts a subtle flavour and colouration to the food.