Just had an e-mail from Dobies about saffron bulbs.

Has anyone ever grown any and is it worth the hassle for such a small harvest?

I had a thing through with the magazine I think. I thought it was interesting, but as I've never used saffron in cooking, I don't really know if it's worth all the hooha or not.

Yes it is, but not sure that a tenner for 35 bulbs is going to produce enough saffron. I could buy it ready dried, cheaper.

I got really excited then OH pointed out to me that you needed to pick the stamens with tweezers and the reason why it was so expensive was that you won't be able to harvest that much from a small amount of plants.

I think it's 3420 flowers to make one ounce of saffron, that's alot of tweezer activity.

I've bought them - I'll let you know - yer yer, I know - there's one born every minute

Well I was going to - but I'm not sure what to do now!

They look nice anyway

I'm another one that they saw coming...

I've wanted to try growing saffron corms for ages. I'm not too bovved about the labour-intensive stuff, just seems like a nice thing to try.

I ordered them a while ago - think there was a thread in the herb/flower forum? Won't be arriving till August though

Originally Posted by Rhona

I'm another one that they saw coming...

I've wanted to try growing saffron corms for ages. I'm not too bovved about the labour-intensive stuff, just seems like a nice thing to try.

Phew!

Me too, always wanted to have a go and now I shall

When we lived in Khartoum we went to a Greek fair/market one day and I bought 1kg of the best Greek safron for about £5 !!!, there was obviously a mistake there somewhere, that would be around £5000 real price. That was 9-10 years ago, we still got jam jars full of the stuff!!!!

Try as I might, I can't get my tongue around your username hsthsth - it makes a sound like a snake in my head

what can you use it for?

throw it in with rice, sprinkle it over roasted squash, use it in marinades etc etc........................saying that, it's well over rated I think.