This month we celebrate the history of a flower - the saffron crocus. And what a long and noble history it is! Found in ancient Babylon and China as early as 2600 B.C., saffron is an honoured elder in the realm of spices.

Available either as dried brownish filaments called threads or as an orange-yellow powder - it is the world’s most expensive spice and the final word in labour-intensive harvesting. As many as 5000 stigmas - the upper tip of the pistil of the flower - are needed to make a single ounce of saffron! The stigmas are hand picked, dried or cured and, in the process, become pure saffron. When purchasing saffron threads, bear this in mind: the masculine part of the crocus is the stamen, which is much smaller than the stigma. Dried the stamens are a yellowish color. The more stamens in the spice, the more filler and therefore the lesser the quality of the product.

In early times, the Minoans were the most renown growers of the saffron crocus. They grew it throughout its natural range in the Aegean Sea and those parts of Asia Minor which they controlled. As early as the mid-1500s BC, they were trading the prized spice throughout the Mediterranean, introducing it to various cultures and forever adding to the palette of flavours the world would cherish.

So valuable was saffron that a few handfuls of the crocus bulbs was often accepted as collateral for a loan. Little wonder given its high value that imitators and ne’er-do-wells soon put their minds to adulterating and even falsifying the product.

As is often seen in the history of the spice trade, the saffron producing nations tried to limit the crocus bulb’s spread to other nations. But this flower’s power could not be stopped...
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