Saffron spice with pleasant flavor fragrance
Purple flowered saffron is a wonderful plant to which nature has given a fascinating fragrance, pleasant flavor, a beautiful color, and a host of other qualities. Believed to have been originally native to the Mediterranean area, Asia Minor, and Iran, the saffron crocus has long been cultivated in Iran and was taken from this country to a number of other parts of the world as a result of trade after its high quality and distinctive properties were understood over centuries of its application. Iran is most productive and together with Spain produces more than 80% of the world’s production. In India, it is cultivated in Jammu & Kashmir and in Himachal Pradesh. Saffron is more important in Central Asia and Northern India and is used extensively for rice dishes. Even the North Indian biryanis are relished due to the fragrant and aromatic flavor added by the saffron.
Indian sweets like, kheer, ras malai, Indian yogurt drink (lassi), butter lassi (makhaniya lassi) have an everlasting culinary impression due to the saffron added to it. The use of saffron in sweet dishes is famous in the desert regions of Jodhpur in Rajasthan in the Indian sub continent. Saffron is unique among spices due to its aroma. It has always held a very special place for its extraordinary medicinal and flavoring properties as well as for being a striking yellow dye. Indian saffron is cultivated on a large scale in the Jammu & Kashmir valley whose cool dry climate and rich soil with excellent drainage and organic content make the location an ideal thriving ground for this spice. By every standard, Indian saffron is considered superior to its foreign counterparts.Saffron has long history of over 5000 years in Kashmir, India and is supposed to have been introduced into china by the Mongol invasion.
The valley of Kashmir is famous for its saffron fields located on both sides of the national highway on the karewas of Pampore about 18kms from Srinagar. Moreover, it also grown in some part of Kishtwar region of Jammu division.. Saffron is a low growing plant with an underground globular corm. It is cultivated for scented lavender flowers. The flowers have a trifid, orange, coloured stigma which along with the style is the saffron of commerce. The cultivation of saffron needs an extreme climate; hot and dry weather in summer and cold in winter. The land must be dry, calcareous, aired, flat and without trees. The soil must be equilibrated in organic material in order to avoid risks of erosion, and have some depth that allows the water to drain so that the bulb is not damaged. The sowing takes place in the months of June and July.
The bulbs are placed in ridges of about 20 cm. depth. The distance between the bulbs should be of 10 cm. The plant is a bulbous, perennial with globular corms, 15-20 cm high. It has 6 to 10 leaves present at anthesis, one to two flowers with a lilac-purple colour with perianth segments of 3.5 – 5 cm and style branches of 2.5 – 3.2 cm. The yellow style is deeply divided into three branches and the stigmata are bright red. Flowers are arising directly from the corms. Flowers have tri-lobed stigma, which along with the style tops yield the saffron of commerce. The sowing of bulbs is a very hard job because it is done by hand, and forces you to walk in a bent position for hundreds of yards. By October end the blossoms are in full bloom. The stigmas are bright orange-red and are clearly visible among the lilac flowers. The harvesting takes place between the end of October-beginning of November.
The rose of saffron blooms at dawn and should stay the least possible time in the plant because it withers quickly and the stigmas loose color and aroma. This is why they are gathered between dawn and 10 a.m. Once the flowers are gathered, stigmas are separated from the rest of the flower. The fact that more than 85.000 flowers are needed to obtain just one kilo of saffron gives us an idea of how hard this work is. Simultaneously, while the crocus blooms are being collected, the stigmas are separated from the flowers. The stigmas of saffron have a high level of moisture, so it is necessary to dry them for its good preservation. The stigmas are naturally and slowly dried, a process that shrinks the stigma to one fifth of its original size and enhances its bright red colour. Now the stigma is rigid, without wrinkles and ready to use. Finally three grades known in the market as Shahi Saffron, Mogra saffron and Lachha Saffron are produced.
