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Welcome,
You can descover here an unusual and exciting cultivation on my small biological farm in Corrèze (Limousin) : SAFFRON
Saveurs&Safran produces biological saffron and prepares different products (marmalade, syrup, chutney, etc.) with saffron thanks to the fruits from the farm.
Marjorie
History
The word saffron comes from the Persian “Za’farân”, which means ‘yellow’. Saffron was discovered about 5000 years ago however no one can say exactly when and where, probably Crete or middle Asia.
The Crocus Sativus, which gives the saffron, is a result of meticulous selection form the presumable wild forerunner, the Crocus Carwrigthianus. This one was brought in Europe with the several Arabian conquests, and became through crossbreeding the plant used nowadays.
In the middle ages saffron settled in France. There were two big production areas: Quercy and Gâtinais. The saffron was so important at that time, that the government promulgated a law in order to tax the farmers. The small pieces of land where saffron was growing, were called ‘safranieres’. From that moment on saffron was shipped to every corner in Europe and India. But during the revolution in the 18the century, the production stopped.
Nowadays saffron is again cultivated. The French production is rising all over France (Bourgogne, Poitou, Charentes, Centre, Provence, Alpes, Midi-Pyrénées, Sud-Quest….). In Limousin, more and more farmers turn to this culture and the biggest safranieres of France is to be found in Creuse.
In Europe the most important producers of saffron are: Greece, Italy and Spain. Worldwide the number one producer is Iran, followed by Morocco.
Description
Saffron is given by a crocus and even though there are different ones; Crocus Carwrigthianus, Crocus Hadriatus and Crocus Niveus, the Crocus Sativus is the most prolific. All of them need a human hand to grow.
The Crocus Sativus is a spherical plant which belongs to the family Iridacees and flowers in Autumn. It does not exists in a wild form as it is the result of a meticulous selection of the Crocus Carwrigthianus which has abnormal long stigmas.
The bulb: also known as tuber is round on the top and flat at the bottom. The bulb is protected by a net of brown fibers. The bulb normally has a diameter around 2,5 to 5 cm; on the surface are the eyes which produce the leaves and the flowers. This eyes can also create new bulbs.
Foliage: dark green foliage appears with the flower or just after it. The leaves, 6 to 10 per bulb, are very thin (2-5 mm) and can reach 50 cm in length. They grow from October until Mai and disappear in Mai June.
The flower: the flowering depends on the size of the bulb. It takes place in Autumn, from late September until half November. The flower is growing overnight, it opens on the next morning and lives maximum 24 hours. It has 6 petals, 3 stamens and 1 pistil which is divided in 3 bright red stigmas. Its from this pistil that we extract the saffron. When its raining the flower doesnt open to protect its precious pistil until the rain stops.
Multiplying: The multiplying happens in the winter. The bulb which has flowered gives new little bulbs on top of itself and dies. This takes place every year again in the same way.
Climate: The saffron needs direct light and doesnt like shade. It grows best on a light rich land turned towards the south/south-east.
Cycles: saffron develops itself yearly from October to October. The flowering starts together with the growing of the leaves at the end of September or at the beginning of October. The leaves go on growing during the whole winter and stop in Mai when they become yellow and disappear totally. The plants rest during the summer and come back again in Autumn.
Use and properties: saffron has many properties, mostly used in the kitchen but also in medicine, coloring and perfumes.
- Can slow down the evolution of some cancer.
- Can release pain in the eye and in the teethes.
- Has a good effect on light nervous breakdown and sleeplessness.
- It stimulates the brain and makes one happy.
- Stimulates the digestion.
- Colors in yellow or orange (according to its concentration).
- Its used in cosmetic to reduce wrinkles.
The best way to take profit of saffrons properties is to cook it!
Culture
The soil has to be very well prepared, without stones or weeds and the earth very fine.
To have flowers already in the first year, choose bulbs caliber 9+. Plant them in the summer by hand 20 centimeters deep every 15 centimeters on rows 25 centimeters apart. You can put 30 to 50 bulbs on a square meter: the more bulbs you put the shorter the rotation.
Picking up the flower, cutting the pistil: The flowering happens at the end of September and last until
mid-November. The flowers are picked up in the morning when they are just opened and dry. Right after the pistils are cut, the petals and the stamens are thrown away. During the harvest, picking up the flower, cutting the pistils and drying the saffron happen every day because the flower lives only 24 hours.
Drying: the most important step for the quality and the conservation of the saffron is the drying. During the drying the pistils lose about 80% of their weight at about 60°C. We can find different techniques around the world, drying in the sun, in a electric oven, in a dehydrator. Avoid all smokes, perfumes of other food products.
Conservation: keep your saffron in an airtight pot in a dry and dark place. Good quality saffron which is kept under good conditions, stays good for two to three years.
Cleaning the field: to get the best out of the saffranieres you have to take out the weeds regularly, best way by hand. Every 4 to 7 years you have to take all the bulbs away and wait at least 6 to 8 years before you can plant again on the same place.
Vermin and diseases: wild boars, rabbits, deer, moles and rats are crazy for saffron bulbs. Diseases are mainly due to mushrooms and to avoid it dont plant your bulbs near potatoes, asparagus, luzern and respect the rotation of the culture.
True or false
What you need to know when you want to buy GOOD saffron:
- Avoid saffron powder: 9 times out of 10, this is NOT saffron. Those capsules may contain a tiny bit of saffron, but most of the time its a mixture with curcuma, paprika, marigold and sometimes even sand and brick powder.
- Prefer saffron in pistils: the end of the stigma are in trumpet shape, the color is dark red and they are 3 to 5 cm long. Sometimes you can find fraud saffron: real saffron mixed with colored maize fibers, pomegranate fibers and even silk fibers. Finally look for the color, it must be only red (not white or yellow), because only the red part of the stigmas has taste.
- Be aware that the word saffron is used for other flowers: Colchique (saffron of the meadow which is highly toxic), Carthame and Curcuma (Indian saffron).
- Saffron colors in yellow and not red. In Tibet the monks used to color their clothes in yellow with saffron.
- Look at the year of the harvest: saffron keeps all its qualities during three years. After this it has no more taste and develops biting smell.
- Look also at the price, when the saffron is too cheap, its definitely not good saffron.
TIP: Buy your saffron directly from the producer and dont hesitate to ask him about his culture techniques.
Location
The farm: small property called 'La Côte' right by the village Vigeois. The farm stands on a small hill, on top of the river la Vézère where it is quiet and peaceful.
Vigeois: a small community in the Corrèze crossed by the river la Vézère, with 1137 inhabitants. Vigeois has a ideal situation at the crossing of two main highways: A20 (Paris-Toulouse) and A89 (Bordeaux-Lyon). Tourism is a important activity in the village and around, and specially at the lake which is open for camping and swimming. The sights in town are le vieux pont a bridge across the river. LIf millénaire a tree in the schoolyard which is more than 1000 years old. LAbbatiale du XIIème the church. Vigeois is also a good place for fishing, waking, canoeing, meditation, swimming, biking etc. because of its beautiful and diversified nature.
Project
I was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Corrèze, in 1983. I grew up on the family farm where I developed a feeling and a particular attraction for agriculture. During the days I was unemployed, I was thinking of starting my own business on the farm. I read a magazine in which was an article about a woman, Véronique Lazérat, producing saffron in Creuse. I went there to see how she managed and was convinced that I could realize my own project. I decided to produce all the fruits and vegetables myself, and transform them into marmalade, sauce, chutneys, syrups etc. with my own saffron. Because I wanted to produce high quality products in harmony and respect towards my environment, I naturally choose the techniques of biological agriculture.
I want to thank my family and friends for the help and support they gave me and made it possible for me to achieve my project.
By this website, Im glad to present you my activity and my products.
Have a good time!
Marjorie Heurkens
Fruit/Vegetables/Flowers
My safranières (saffron fields) enjoy the morning sun, the ground gives them naturally all what they need to grow well as it has not been worked on for many years no spread with chemicals (so the ground has still all its minerals). The work in the field is all handwork.
Little fruits: Many different varieties Ive planted : strawberries, raspberries, black&red berries, cranberries etc.
Other fruits: peaches, apples, pears, figs, apricots, melons, kiwis, cherries and tomatoes
All the fruits are grown in a biological way.
Vegetables: courgette, carrots, potatoes, onions, pumpkins and red beets
Wild flowers: nature being rich and generous on my small farm, it gives me wild flowers, like the elder, the dandelion and the acacia which I cook in my marmalades and syrups.
Kitchen
Saffron has many properties but in the kitchen only three of them are of interest.
- Its coloring property: a beautiful yellow
color.
- Its perfume
- Its taste: which amplifies the flavor of each component of the dish, either sweet or salty.
To cultivate saffron as well as to cook it, the main word is “patience”. Before adding the saffron to your preparation you must put it in a small amount of water for at least two hours. Saffron shouldn’t cook long (maximum 20 minutes): best is to add it ten minutes before end. That way its color and its flavor open very well. Be aware that saffron doesn’t like frying or boiling for a long time.
In India they let the saffron open in warm milk instead of water.
Saffron is a very good friend of rice: we find it in Spanish paella, Italian risotto, Indian ‘zarda pullao’ etc.
It also goes very well with white meat (chicken, goose, turkey) sheep (Moroccan tagine, Indian ‘byrianis’). We can mix saffron in the marinade with some ginger, onions and cumin.
Use it with parsimony: 1 to 2 pistils (3 to 6 stigmas) per person is enough with a good quality saffron.
Lemon cake with saffron
Ingredients
1 pot yoghurt (the pot will be the measure unit for the rest of the ingredients)
3 pots flour
2 pots sugar
100g butter (room-temperature)
3 eggs
2 lemons (only the juice)
1 small bag baking powder
8 pistils saffron
Preparation
Put the saffron in 1 to 2 table-spoons warm water for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Mix all the ingredients through each other.
Add the saffron, and mix again.
Bake the cake at 180°C for 25 to 30 minutes.
TIP: You can also take orange juice instead of lemon juice.
Scallop with saffron sauce
12 scallop
20cl white wine
15cl crème fraîche
1 table-spoon oil
Salt and pepper
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the scallop 1 to 2 minutes at both sides, keep them warm.
Pour the white wine in the frying pan and heat it for 5 minutes.
Add the crème fraîche and the saffron.
Let the sauce cook for a few minutes so that its getting thick.
Add salt and pepper.
Serve the scallop with the saffron sauce.
Crème brûlée with saffron
5 egg yolks
100g castor sugar
125g milk
375g whipping cream
½ vanilla pod
10 pistils saffron
Preheat the oven to 100°C.
Cut the vanilla pod and scrape the pith out.
Heat the cream, the milk together, vanilla pod, vanilla pith and one teaspoon sugar.
When the mixture starts to boil, take the vanilla pod out and add the saffron. Stop the cooking.
In the meanwhile mix the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until you get a pale and creamy cream.
Add the hot milk/cream/saffron mixture and stir it until it becomes beautiful thick crème.
Put the crème in little ovenwares and bake them 25 minutes.
Let them cool down and put them at least 2 hours in the fridge.
Heat the oven-grill, sprinkle the crème brûlée with some castor sugar and let the sugar caramelize under the grill.
Discription
The saffron: Its a biological product, picked up and transformed with most care which is proposed to you. Because of the respect given to this flower and the most rigorous work during every step of the harvest, I can offer you the highest quality saffron. You can acquire the saffron in pots of 0.1g- 0.5g- 1g-2g- 5g.
Products with saffron: a part of the saffrons harvest goes in addition to several products like marmalades, chutneys and syrups which are made from the fruits and vegetables produced on the farm.
Products without saffron: some of the fruits I produce have such a special taste that they are simply cooked alone or mixed with other fruits. -without saffron.
Biological Crocus bulbs (caliber 8 and +)
For your own pleasure you can grow your own saffron in a small garden of even in pots.
(on sale starting mid-July)
Where to find
Where can you buy my products?
- On several markets during the year, for dates see the official website.
-On the farm, the shop is opened every Monday (9.30-12.30), Friday (15.00-18.30) and Saturday (9.30-18.30).
From 15 June till 15 September the shop is opened every morning exept on Sunday.
WARNING! The shop is closed during the month October!
-Online via the website:
www.saveurs-et-safran.com
-In a few local stores
•Saveurs Fermières (LIMOGES)
•Senteurs et Gourmandises (ARNAC-POMPADOUR)
•La Boutique des Arômes (BRIVE)
•Les Pans de Travassac (DONZENAC)
•Office de Tourisme du Pays dUzerche (UZERCHE)
•Les caves de Ganaveix (CONDAT-SUR-GANAVEIX)
Tariff
Saffron
0.1g: €3.90
0.5g: €18
1g: €32
2g: €62
5g: €150
Products with saffron
-Marmalade (250g): for example; raspberry/saffron marmalade, strawberry/currant/saffron marmalade, currant/saffron jelly, blackberry/saffron marmalade.
1 pot: €4.90
6 pots: €29
12 pots: €57.50
-Saffron syrup
20cl: €7.50
10cl: €4.50
-Chutney: onions/saffron or tomato/saffron
110g: €3.50
220g: €5.90
-Strawberry sauce (200g): €4
-Dandelion jelly with saffron (245g): €4.20
-Strawberry syrup with saffron (25cl): €5.20
Products without saffron
-Syrup from the elder flower (33cl): €4.20
-Chestnut/hazelnut cream (250g): €4.30
-Raspberry sauce (200g): €3.90
-Marmalade: green tomatoes or casseilles (250g): €3.90
-Chutney courgette: (110g) €2.90 (220g) €4.70
ETC-ETC-ETC-ETC-ETC
La Côte
Vigeois 19410
Tel: 05 55 97 15 32
E-mail: contact_saveurs-et-safran.com
Site: www.saveurs-et-safran.com
Saveurs&Safran, La Côte, 19410 Vigeois, France, Tel:0555971532, Email: contact_saveurs-et-safran.com
