SAFFON
VEGETABLE
GOLD
Saffron's
flavor is described as ' Metallic honey with grassy notes' .
Hay like and sweet.
It is an
extremely subtle and fragrant spice, difficult to to describe
in taste but immediately
recognizable
in a dish. It has been associated with the Mediterranean
and Middle East for
centuries.
Now, it can be grown in Vermont.
High tunnel
winter growing has had success along with kale and spinach
experiments at the University of Vermont's “ North American
Center of Saffron Research and Development,
managed by
Margaret Skinner and Arash Ghalehgolabbehani.
The background
of saffron it that it is a spice derived from the flower of the
saffron crocus
plant. The
crimson stigmas aka threads are collected and dried and
used as seasoning and
coloring agents
in food. Saffron is the most expensive spice or the worlds
spices, selling between
$25 to $100
per gram. Picking, separating and drying takes up three weeks of
harvest. The quality
stays good for
up to a few years. Harvest is late October and November and
it takes a 1000
flowers, each
flower produces 3 threads , to give one ounce of the spice.
Skinner says
it is an easy going crop, plant it, a month later it begins to
emerge. Today there are about 450 growers in 15 states. The
three weeks of harvesting is
intense,
picking, separating, drying, then a cool storage place.
The 2019
Saffron workshop is scheduled for March 15 in Burlington, VT.
Abstract:
March 2019 Country Folks Grower, Palatine Bridge, New York,
article by
Courtney Llewellyn.
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