This August I did a cooking class for an Italian friend at her fabulous villa in Chianti and one of the guests at the class brought a lovely hostess gift for both of us; 20 saffron bulbs.
He gave me instructions for planting…. and I was so excited to see my bulbs sprout and flower.
Some of the bulbs were double so I harvested twice from almost all the plants.
Now I leave them in the ground and split the bulbs next year so will have quite a bit.
This year I have already done a risotto and a soup and still have some left.
Mille Grazie! I adore gifts that keep on giving!
How wonderful to have your own saffron harvest, I love the photo collage you have included.
Thanks!
I am so impressed! I guess I never realized that you could harvest saffron yourself.
@paninigirl- I live in an area of tuscany where saffron has been grown since medieval times– am lucky it liked my yard!
How many bulbs do you need to harvest enough for your cooking needs?
Wow, very cool! I didn’t not realize you could just grow them… haha…
I was given 20 bulbs. I harvested twice, most bulbs had two blossoms. it gave me a nice amount probably for making 4 recipes. I have made a small soup and a pumpkin risotto. I still have more to use. Next year, in June I am to remove the bulbs from the ground and divide them- so will have more than 40 plants! at that rate I will have a lot!