Saffron!

 

Perusing cookbooks over the years I’ve gleaned all manner of cooking tips and food information. I’m happy to share with you, dear reader, a payoff from this flawed database. 

I was online searching baked good recipes when I stumbled across a Swedish Saffron Cake which got me to thinking about the sheer number of Nordic recipes using saffron that I’ve encountered.  Why was saffron so commonly used in cooking there? How did they get it?  I had in my mind that saffron was regarded as a luxury item, like Swiss chocolates and caviar. 

From Wikipedia:  Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus commonly known at saffron crocus.

I’d never heard that.  I phoned Melissa to share the remarkable information that saffron threads are crocus stigma.  She said, “Everybody knows that.”  Huh? Not me. 

Inner gardener kicks in:  Wonder if I can grow it?” And the answer to that question?  Yes

Inner miser kicks in: Have you seen the price of the stuff at the grocery store? Of course I can grow it!

I ordered 50 bulbs and gleefully potted them envisioning a sea of purple crocus with red, red stamins.  Green shoots appeared the first year.  Then I moved and I brought the crocus along, where year after year green shoots appeared, and then nothing.  But this year we thinned some tree and got enough sun for: 


Zippity doo dah!  



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