I think you may know what's saffron. Dried stigmas of a saffron plant (Crocus sativus) are used mainly in various cuisines as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron is world's most costly spices by weight. I'm not sure about the exact price nowadays. The largest producers are Spain and Iran. Although saffron is native to Anatolia, its production is very low in Turkey because of very high labor costs.
You can see the stigmas of the saffron, the red ones.
Saffron field in Kashmir/India. People are picking the flowers one by one with hand. It's preferred to pick the flowers before they fully blossom at wee hours of the day. After picking up the flowers, the stigmas are plucked carefully from the flowers one by one with hand.
Saffron was a very important crop in Ottoman era because of this the city where saffron used to be massively grown took its name from saffron. "Safranbolu" (means, (nearly) full of saffron). This small city is also famous for its beatiful traditional style architecture and lokums (Turkish Delight). BTW, Safranbolu is an UNESCO World Heritage City since 1994, all of these beatiful houses are protected by organisation.
A tray of lokum (Turkish Delight).
Ok, I prolonged this topic a little. Actual reason of starting this thread is, I found some saffron bulbs in a carton container today, they already started to give leaves from the bulbs. But I don't know when I put them there so I have no idea how old are they. Actually saffron is a winter plant, it's planted in late August, flower on after 15th October and very resistant to colds (-15 C) and start to die on May. Because of the storing conditions these bulbs thought that it's fall but it's not, I'll plant them in a pot and try to get baby bulbs
You can see the stigmas of the saffron, the red ones.
Saffron field in Kashmir/India. People are picking the flowers one by one with hand. It's preferred to pick the flowers before they fully blossom at wee hours of the day. After picking up the flowers, the stigmas are plucked carefully from the flowers one by one with hand.
Saffron was a very important crop in Ottoman era because of this the city where saffron used to be massively grown took its name from saffron. "Safranbolu" (means, (nearly) full of saffron). This small city is also famous for its beatiful traditional style architecture and lokums (Turkish Delight). BTW, Safranbolu is an UNESCO World Heritage City since 1994, all of these beatiful houses are protected by organisation.
A tray of lokum (Turkish Delight).
Ok, I prolonged this topic a little. Actual reason of starting this thread is, I found some saffron bulbs in a carton container today, they already started to give leaves from the bulbs. But I don't know when I put them there so I have no idea how old are they. Actually saffron is a winter plant, it's planted in late August, flower on after 15th October and very resistant to colds (-15 C) and start to die on May. Because of the storing conditions these bulbs thought that it's fall but it's not, I'll plant them in a pot and try to get baby bulbs
