Crocus Sativus

Has anyone ever used Saffron? I did once and I don't remember why...maybe some obscure recipe that I found that called for it and I happened to find it at some random store that I don't remember now...maybe it was Trader Joe's.

ANYWAY

It has been a long time since I got that saffron and it is safe to say that it wasn't a memorable experience (man I wish I could remember what it was for), but for some reason using the saffron has stuck in my mind.

Not how it was used or anything, just the fact that I found it and it had less than a dozen strands of the goods in the teeny-tiny bottle.

As I continue to grow stuff I've been thinking about the different things that I want to try and woudn't you know it Saffron came to mind. Back in April or May I did some research then decided to place an order on the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds website.

Then promptly forgot that I had placed an order...but only for a couple of months.

The order shipped in September and I still had to wait to do anything with them until this month. That's only because I didn't know where I wanted to put them. My friend who had been gardening in our yard decided that she no longer had the time or inclination to plant more than what she is now able to grow at her home and essentially gifted the garden boxes to us. So I spent a couple of days weeding out one of the long narrow boxes and got the bulbs planted. That was on October 16. There was already growth on many of the bulbs so I did my best to not damage the growth and successfully planted all twenty-five.

This week I was out messing around with the ducks and happened to take a look at the box with the crocus planted in it and this is what I saw:

There were three blooms just standing tall and looking so pretty. Now that it is raining the blooms have wilted and the stigmas were all ruined. Note to self, don't wait to harvest the saffron next year.

I hadn't planned on harvesting this year, but now I know that I'll have to do it when the time is right and when it hasn't rained.

Like many things that I try, this is an experiment. Maybe one day I'll have enough to sell super small quantities to a select few people...people that know how to use saffron at least. It's a future dream maybe.

Farm Life...

Now That The Chickens Are Done...

What do we do now?

There is so much still that needs to be done and it appears that I am starting to run out of time! Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I feel that sometimes. The days a getting shorter and my To-Do list seems to get longer. That's mainly because I keep coming up with things that I could probably do with this, that and the other thing. There are two things that absolutely need to happen this month - within the next couple of weeks would be preferable.

First....Garlic. For the first time ever I decided to order seed garlic and since I didn't know what I wanted I went with a sampler.

I'm pretty excited about planting garlic. I tried to do garlic a couple of years ago, but then after a little research realized that garlic needs to be planted in the fall. Maybe I kinda knew that. Also, I used what store variety we had hoping that something would come up. I think a couple did - but that was it. Since then I decided to move on to other things. I'm ready to go back to it and give a go. More than that this needs to be successful - seed garlic is not cheap...well, it's not overly expensive, but for $25 I want some quality garlic coming out of the garden. That's not a lot to ask for, right?

The other thing that needs to be planted would be my Saffron Crocus. I'm still trying to come up with a space for those. I may have to just plop those into one of the garden boxes that are now officially mine. The only thing is these dudes are fall bloomers. So I'll need to figure out what will be okay to grow with these until fall rolls around. Maybe a box of pretty herbs and flowers...hmmm...

crocus sativus

What will I do with the Saffron? I have no idea. I just had the idea to put something special into the garden and see what happens. This will be interesting. What I do know is that saffron is an expensive spice. Either way, it can be quite spendy for the amout that you get and how long it will last. I got it once and I can't think what I used it for. So, this time next year maybe I'll have some saffron flowers blooming and then maybe I'll have a few strands of saffron to try out. I'll have to learn how to deal with these things so as not to destroy what I'm hoping to use in the kitchen.

Always trying something new!