Saffron farmer?

We were invited to Samir on Friday evening for coffee. We talked about Sweden, work, food and horses and suddenly Samir's son comes in with a huge tray full of foods. Upon seeing our big eyes, Samir said that it was only something small. Well, Ktzitzot (Israeli meatballs), Goulash, Mulukhiyah, olives, rice, several salads and home-made pita was more than enough to stuff us to the brim. We also got a whole bag of his wife's pita to bring home. I also want a pita oven...

Crocus sativus

We came to talk about saffron, the incredibly expensive spice from the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus. During my Bachelor education, my thesis project was on that particular species, hence I know very much about this plant. I think that already at that time I could see myself cultivating saffron crocuses somewhere warm, and that dream came somewhat to life again as I moved here. In December I wanted to bake saffron buns but discovered that saffron is not only expensive in Israel, but also pretty difficult to find, although the country is situated in the middle of the saffron-growing region. This is something that we are not used to from Sweden, where every supermarket offers saffron envelopes all year around. Anyhow, without any hesitation Samir offered me half a dunam (500 kvm) for setting up a trial. It seems almost too good to be true and suddenly I find myself a bit diffident, wondering if I can pull off such a project. Of course I can, but still it feels a bit intimidating. I will not be able to achieve enough corms to cover such a large area, but how much I can cover depends on to what price we find corms, and how much we decide that we can invest on it. After buying corms once and planting them, they later on multiply in the ground, allowing you expand every fourth year or so. Now I am looking for corms to a reasonable price. Saffron cultivation will never render a full income unless you harvest from several acres, but it could be a nice pet-project to supplement my other activities. There will hopefully be a continuation to this story.

Stigmas from the saffron crocus