Do you love saffron? Try to grow a few plants, but remember that you will need a full basket for a single gram of them! How is saffron grown and how much does this special spice sell for?
There is a lot of work behind a single gram of dried saffron
You have the space and time to devote yourself to growing or breeding something for improvement and you are thinking about which direction to head. All kinds of things are cultivated, but the basis is to have a relationship with such an activity. Although it can be an interesting extra income, your results will not be dizzying if you do not have a certain amount of drive and enthusiasm.
You can breed fish, for example, grow mushrooms. How about saffron? Although it’s your favorite spice and you love flowers and crocuses in particular, you can’t get enough of enthusiasm in this case. Saffron requires a lot of work and space. It will not be easy to create suitable conditions for him.
In this post, the YouTube channel Business Insider will introduce you to cultivation, but mainly to the collection of flowers and subsequently also to the acquisition of spices.
Source: Youtube
Saffron: The highest price for only the best quality
It sounds great. The price of saffron in our country varies between 500 and 1000 CZK per gram, and even 700,000 CZK per kilo, and this is not to mention premium quality, the price of which can rise to over one million crowns. However, saffron thrives best in Iran, where 90 percent of the world’s production comes from. High-quality spices are also exported from Spain or Kashmir or Afghanistan. In these countries, it becomes an additional income, but also a lucrative main activity. There are naturally suitable conditions for growing saffron.
The price of the resulting product depends not only on the quality, which is determined by appearance and color, aroma and taste, the ability to dye or the absence of impurities. In order to determine the quality and achieve ISO 3632, a spectrophotometric analysis of individual substances that influence the properties of spices is also carried out. The color depends on the content of crocin, picrocrocin gives the spice its flavor and safranal its typical aroma.
How is saffron grown?
The plant requires subtropical to temperate weather, temperatures between 15 and 20 °C are ideal for it. That probably wouldn’t be a problem. Also loamy sandy soils rich in nutrients but with good drainage. Before planting bulbs, it is also necessary to fertilize the soil well with organic mature fertilizers.
Moderate irrigation throughout the growing season is also necessary. However, huge areas are needed for cultivation, as 150 to 200 flowers must be grown to produce a single gram. Bulbs can be planted in any number of ways, but usually in a clip with spacing of about 10 to 15 cm. A square meter can accommodate up to 50 bulbs, which are ideally planted in late summer.
Subsequently, the plant blooms in the fall, during the winter, and then mainly produces green leaves in the spring. The flowers harvested in autumn must then be collected by hand and with tweezers only three red, connected stamens from the center of the flower must be selected, which are left to dry on paper or canvas. Only then can you finally pour them into a glass or other container.
Do you think it’s worth a try? Try growing saffron for your own consumption first. That’s definitely a good idea too!
Sources: apetitonline.cz, sativus.com
