I’m just Mad about Saffron

I’m just Mad about Saffron

Crocus

A costly spice Saffron is made from the stamen of Crocus sativus. Used as a Chinese medicine, in food and as a dye, saffron has been used since medieval times. It has been cultivated by Greeks, Romans and Chinese for 3500 years and is now a cash crop in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Spain.

Description of Saffron

  • Crocus sativus throws up a spear of green leaves only after flowering.
  • The fiery red-yellow, orange stamen are collected and dried to make saffron.
  • There are only 3 stigma to a flower so it takes 100,000 blooms to make a pound of saffron.
  • ‘The saffron flowers blow in September; but leaves come not forth till the spring’  from Culpeper’s Complete Herbal 1653.

Uses of Saffron

  • Saffron was used as a medicine for digestion, circulation and heart problems but overdoses could lead to death.
  • Saffron is bitter sweet and has a pungent aroma and can be used whole, as a powder or in an infusion.
  • Saffrons main culinary uses are in colouring rice, fish stew and paella.
  • Saffron Walden was the centre of the UK production even changing the name of the town to recognise the fact.

The photograph is of a hybrid crocus not a sativus. The video is not of sativus but Donovan.

One thought on “I’m just Mad about Saffron”

  1. Hi Gardenerstips,
    I know what you mean, We decided to get collars for our kitties. We have 6: a 12 year old male, a 1 year old female, and her four kittens(7 months).

    Saffron, one of the kittens, didn’t take it so well. She freaked out the moment we tried to put it on her. Then she ran into the extra bedroom(with all the kitty stuff), hopped up on a dresser and sulked for hours. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her and if any of her siblings got close she swatted them away. I finally took the collar off because I hated her being so mad over it.

    I go back in an hour to check on her and she’s curled up in a kitty cube, hissing and attacking her siblings who still had their collars on. I take their collars off. She acts normal. Now all of a sudden she’s attacking them, again.

    What do I do? I’ve never seen a cat act this way over a collar and a few little bells(that are no different from the bells in the toys they love). Granted i’m fourteen and haven’t had that many cats..but still. It’s really odd…And to me they’re my kids and I don’t like seeing them like this.
    Cheerio

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