Our Artisan Process
1. Planting
The Mediterranean-continental climate creates the ideal environment for the cultivation of the bulbs.
Saffron requires Mediterranean-continental climates, from cold winters to hot, dry summers.
The soil must be limy, fertile and with a high content of organic matter. The most important edaphic limitation is drainage, since flooding damages it, so it is often planted in light or medium textured soils.
The ideal time for planting is during the summer, preferably between the first week of July and the first of September.
The bulbs are buried to a depth of approximately 15-20 cm and in separate furrows of 10 to 30 cm between them. After the fourth or fifth harvest, between the months of May and June, the extraction process takes place, as the proliferation of the corms begins to create competition for space and food between them.
2. Harvesting
he bucolic fog, an ideal accomplice in our morning harvests!
A few weeks before flowering the ground is prepared by carrying out a superficial hoeing between the furrows in order to break the crust, to mull and aerate the ground and also to eliminate the weeds. This work is carried out using hand rakes if the surface is small or, if not, harrows with a tractor.
The flowering period lasts between 20 and 30 days. The harvesting is done manually, cutting the flowers at the base of the corolla and depositing them in appropriate wicker baskets to avoid crushing them by the weight.
For us it is important to pick the flowers when they are still closed in order to ensure that the properties of the saffron are not altered by the pollination of the bees, who also intend to enjoy the harvest. During these days we are fortunate to wake up covered with a bucolic mist which, as an ideal accomplice, accompanies our mornings of harvesting, giving us sufficient time to pick our precious flower that is still closed.
3. Unblading
A pure red coupe saffron!
Unblading is a traditional manual process that has been maintained throughout the centuries and consists of separating the stigmas from the rest of the flower.
Our delicate and careful method consists in opening the flower and cutting the style just above the base of the three filaments without separating them, later eliminating the white part from the style. During this procedure we monitor that the stigmas are manipulated to the minimum and they appear free of floral remains for the dehydration, during the 12 hours following the harvest.
4. Dehydration
Going back to our roots ...
Through dehydration, the stigmas reduce their initial weight to 20% and they become the spice. The way in which this process is carried out differs amongst different producers.
The most commonly used techniques are to leave the stigmas in the sun or place them near a source of heat emitted normally by electrical resistances or butane stoves.
With our process we want to rescue the tradition of yesteryear, where the heat produced by the embers of the kitchen or by the fireplace was used.
We use exclusive woods to produce a controlled fire that allows enhancing the organoleptic characteristics of the saffron.