Saffron is one of the world's most expensive spices by weight due to its difficulty to harvest.[1] Saffron consists of stigmas plucked from the vegetatively propagated and sterile Crocus sativus, known popularly as the saffron crocus. The resulting dried "threads"[N 1] are distinguished by their bitter taste, hay-like fragrance, and slight metallic notes. The saffron crocus is unknown in the wild; its most likely precursor, Crocus cartwrightianus, originated in Crete or Central Asia;[2] The saffron crocus is native to Southwest Asia, and is believed to have been first cultivated in Iran.[3] Greece, Turkey, and Kashmir (India) have also been suggested as possible sites of origin.[4]
"Saffron, for example, was once less regarded than it is today because the crocus from which it is extracted was not particularly mysterious. It flourished in European locations extending from Asia Minor, where it originated, to Saffron Walden in England, where it was naturalised. Only subsequently, when its labour-intensive cultivation became largely centred in Kashmir (India) , did it seem sufficiently exotic to qualify as one of the most precious of spices."[5]
Saffron crocus cultivation has long centered on a broad belt of Eurasia bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the southwest to Kashmir ( India) and China in the northeast. The major producers of antiquity—Iran, Spain, Kashmir ( India)and Greece—continue to dominate the world trade.
The cultivation of saffron in the Americas begun by members of the Schwenkfelder Church in Pennsylvania. In recent decades cultivation has spread to New Zealand, Tasmania, and California. However, Iran remains the largest producer of saffron worldwide, accounting for over 90% of all saffron production.[6]
^Saffron : science, technology and health. A. Koocheki, Mohammad Khajeh-Hosseini. Duxford, United Kingdom. 2020. ISBN 978-0-12-818740-1. OCLC 1140113593.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
^Keay (2005), pp. 19-20.
^"Detailed Information | Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | GIAHS | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations". www.fao.org. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
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Saffron is one of the world's most expensive spices by weight due to its difficulty to harvest. Saffron consists of stigmas plucked from the vegetatively...
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to compete with the Tucher's trading company in the saffrontrade until the 17th century, making it one of the last trading companies of the Nuremberg patricians...
parents Azizuddin Kitchlew and Dan Bibi. His father owned a pashmina and saffrontrading business and originally belonged to a Hindu Brahmin family of Baramulla...
a church. Saffron was historically grown in the mild climate of Devon and Cornwall but it is likely that saffron from Spain had been traded for centuries...
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Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, KG, CH, PC, DL (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known...
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operated the last big trading companies of the Nuremberg patriciate; both families especially competed in the European saffrontrade. They were among the...
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