In which I rescue my poor bedraggled little saffron crocuses from a weekend of heavy rain and pick out the saffron stamens. Take that $25 bottle of saffron from the supermarket!
I think I’ll make risotto.
I’ve not yet actually cooked with my home-grown saffron, so if we are all poisoned I’ll make sure someone lets you know…
If it poisons you or just doesn’t taste that great, at least it is stunningly beautiful! Impressive.
And if you ever go back to store-bought, Cost Plus World Market charges a fraction of what other stores do. I took the price tag off of mine, but I believe it was about $5 for the 1 gram package. (And they have whole vanilla beans $2.99 for a pack of 2! I do love me a bargain.)
Wow! You grow your own saffron! That’s a new one on me. How much do the crocuses cost? You were adventurous to grow them in Seattle, aren’t they a hot climate plant? Let us know!
And thanks to Gypsy for the Cost Plus tip.
I planted these two years ago and they seem to grown pretty well in Seattle. I knew that saffron crocuses used to be grown a lot in England – Cornwall is famous for saffron buns and there’s a place called Saffron Walden in Essex – so I figured that they’d probably grow in Seattle as believe it or not the summers seem to be warmer, drier and quite ‘Mediterranean’ here. I can’t remember where I got the bulbs but I don’t think they were super expensive. They were marked as ‘saffron’ crocuses though and bloom in the autumn.
They grew well the first year and I harvested the saffron but then forgot to use it! Last year I forgot to check them so I’ve no idea whether they bloomed or not (apparently they only have a two week blooming period). So hopefully this is third time lucky.