It’s called the most expensive spice on earth, but a little goes a long way in enhancing dishes from sweet to savoury. Its rich red-orange colour lends a distinctive look to dishes, and its flavour is variously described as earthy, floral, and grassy. Best of all for locavores, it’s now grown in Nova Scotia.
A meandering road takes you to Coastal Grove Farm, owned by Cynthia Bazinet and Matthew Roy, about half an hour southwest of Shelburne, N.S. Sunlight dapples the ocean shoreline where a fenced off area holds the farm’s most precious of its many organically grown crops: saffron crocus.
The couple call themselves “accidental Americans,” who were born in the U.S., but moved to Canada as permanent residents in 2019, and are now proud citizens. Matthew comes from a 25-year farming background and has a degree in ecological agriculture, while Cynthia is a retired high-school teacher and health-care manager. They decided to try their hand at growing true tea in the so-called banana belt of Shelburne County (the mildest climate in Nova Scotia), and also grow citrus, assorted vegetables and herbs, in greenhouses and in open gardens. They were looking for a crop that would have a quick turnover while they waited for their tea plants to mature to harvestable size, and discovered no one grew saffron in the province. “It seemed like a reasonable way to go,” Cynthia says.
Unlike the spring crocuses we welcome in our gardens in March and April, saffron crocus is an autumn bloomer. The plants can be ready to harvest a mere six weeks after planting the bulblike corms, so Cynthia and Matthew planted 15,000 corms the first season and another 10,000 the second year. The plants multiply like spring crocuses, producing additional corms underground. They need digging up and dividing every four to six years to prevent overcrowding.
“One of the features that makes saffron an attractive spice is its ability to colour food, in addition to adding subtle flavour,” Cynthia says.
Matthew adds that historically, the spice would brighten traditional dishes of the ancient world. “The spice can import either a floral or an earthy quality, depending on the terroir the saffron came from.”
Chefs around the country use Coast Grove Farm’s saffron, and tell the farmers that their saffron is highly floral with sweet notes. They often use it in a compound butter and it’s a staple in Matthew’s “souped up” chocolate chip cookies. He also puts a pinch in his thermos of coffee each morning.
Cynthia says while they do not tout the medical benefits of saffron, “there is a substantial body of peer-reviewed research … that establishes saffron as having legitimate pharmaceutical applications.” The spice has been used in treating premenstrual syndrome and has anti-inflammatory properties as well as being rich in antioxidants and the B vitamin riboflavin.
Saffron crocuses are happy in regular garden soil, planted between 15 to 20 centimetres deep to avoid the tender corms freezing. They hold much of their nutrients in those corms, so they don’t require much fertilizer, other than a yearly application of compost. Saffron crocus are also drought tolerant, a bonus in these years of sporadic rainfall in southwestern Nova Scotia.
As with so many garden plants, deer and rabbits love the greenery of saffron crocus, so the Coastal Grove Farm plot is fenced in. They’re fairly hardy bulbs but are susceptible to some normal soil pests. Providing the crocus bulbs are planted in early September, you’ll have a harvest in October that can last up to four weeks.
The harvesting of saffron explains why it’s the world’s most expensive spice. Each crocus flower contains exactly three stigmas, the part of the flower that becomes saffron threads. They must be harvested daily, by hand, ideally in the morning, and are dried in the oven at 210F/99C. The threads must be kept intact, as saffron is the most counterfeited spice in the world, and Cynthia says, “intact threads indicate it is authentic.”
According to the North American Center for Saffron Research at the University of Vermont, it takes 167 flowers to make up one gram of spice. Due to demand from chefs and other saffron enthusiasts, Cynthia and Matthew plan to plant another 10,000 corms this year, 4,000 of which will be under protected cover to compare yield with open-field production.
Beware of fake saffron
When it takes so many crocus threads to make up a gram of saffron, it’s not surprising that there are ersatz forms of the spice out there. Among the imposters are safflower petals, dyed corn silk, and even shredded paper. If you find saffron for sale in a larger amount and a low price, it’s not genuine. Test for veracity by looking at the threads, which should be deep red with a flared tip at one end. Dropping a thread into cold water, the colour will slowly diffuse into the water, whereas fake saffron will release its dyed hue immediately. Your best option is to purchase from a reputable seller.
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