Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

I used saffron mainly for paella and some seafood dishes. The flavor is definitely distinctive although subtle.

- "One of the earliest references to saffron dates to 2300 BCE, in The Legend of Sargon of Akkad, a Mesopotamian work that describes the birthplace of the founder of the Akkadian empire as “city of saffron.”"

This doesn't seem right: Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known Mesopotamian work of fiction and it's a more recent ~2,100 BCE [0].

The historic person Sargon of Assad lived in the 24th/23rd century BCE [1]—are they perhaps confusing his biographical era, with the era when (surviving, extant) poetic epics were written about him? His Wikipedia entry [1] doesn't seem to mention any written works older than 8th century BCE.

edit: I've tracked down [2] what I think is the original source of the "city of saffron" quote. It's from an "autobiography" of Sargon which seems to be a much, much later (7th century BCE?) work of fiction—not a historical autobiography (see the introductory discussion starting page 16).

- "4. As has already been noted, no such city has been located, but its meaning, “a specific azupiru-like spice and medicinal plant, is well known. Note, however, the logogram U.HURSAG would mean ‘Mountain Plant’ in Sumerian, which may be related to Sargon’s supposed origins in the highlands. This herb was also used as a potion to produce abortions, which may lend a double entendre to this so-called place-name."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad

[2] https://archive.org/details/resgestaesargonis/page/39/mode/2... (Joan Goodnick Westenholz, "Legends of the kings of Akkade : The Texts" (1997), page 39, footnote 4)

https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/epsd2/cbd/sux/o0024740.html (Electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary, ePSD2: "azugna [VEGETABLE] (N)")

(footnote: I'll never not be amazed modern web browsers support 4,000-year-old writing systems. Look, it's 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌!)

We grow saffron here in N Texas and have for about 3 years now. Last year was our best year for production but that is only because we expanded the number of bulbs that we have planted so our saffron harvest grew in line with that. The first year we ended up with less than a dozen threads total.

It is easy to grow. Just stick the bulb about 1" to 1.5" (25 mm - 40 mm) below the surface and water it in. Keep it moist but not wet so the bulbs don't rot. It will sprout and then produce a nice flower which will have the red stigma or styles that you seek. Each flower will have 3 of them. They pluck easily and take about a day to dry naturally.

Insects will visit the flowers like any other flowers. You have a time-limited window in which to pick them before the flower dries out and it becomes more difficult to separate them from the petals by hand.

The part of saffron growing that makes it expensive is the labor involved in harvesting the red bits which give the distinctive flavor. All of this is done by hand and if you have lots of crocuses to harvest from then you will spend a lot of time gathering them.

We have a couple of 2' x 4' (0.6 X 1.2 m) galvanized steel oval raised garden beds where we grow ours. They are filled with high quality raised bed soil and we do not fertilize our garden except with mulches and compost.

We had a great showing during the hottest part of the summer last year. In total we were able get several grams of saffron from our two raised beds which have between 75 and 200 plants growing in them. I don't really have an accurate count of the number of bulbs we have.

EDIT: This photo shows the saffron beds in our garden. [0] We are still in the process of clearing things this spring. Inside the rings you can see our bulbs, truly a tiny fraction of a metric fuck-tons worth but they have so far yielded several meals worth of flavor. We use about a dozen threads per meal which means that 4 blooms will give you enough for a single meal.

[0] https://postimg.cc/pmJbhZVk

EDIT2: I may have implied that a small operation like ours still takes a lot of time to harvest. That is not accurate at all. Since ours are confined to those two beds and considering that they don't all bloom at once it is a simple process to collect the saffron once the bloom period begins. It takes us a few minutes a day and we spend that time out in the garden anyway managing our other things so it really requires no extra effort to grow and enjoy this spice.

Was there no difference in fragrance either? Saffron imparts a very distinct fragrance, more than taste. And that fragrance affects perceived taste. In larger quantities, it has a bitter-ish taste. I use it in rice puddings, greek yogurt (simplest recipe possible - yogurt, sugar, cardamom powder and few threads of saffron. Big difference with and without saffron).

I'm taking the cocaine wasn't locked then...