Saffron from Corrèze

Little riddle: what is the most expensive spice in the world? No idea? Well it’s saffron or often called “red gold”.

This product is aptly named since if you wish to acquire a 1g of saffron you must pay the modest sum of €30, or even €40 (depending on the quality of the spice) or still €30000 per kg…

Imagine that we are lucky, in Corrèze, to host several Safran operations:
– The white source in Charniac,
– The Corrèze devil in Lagleygeolle,
– La Paradisière in Laval-sur-Luzège
- Saffron from Vézère

Saffron mining

Their production begins with the planting of Crocus sativus bulbs which subsequently give pretty little purple flowers in October. They must then be picked quickly but above all very delicately so as not to damage the precious pistil which subsequently gives the spice.

What follows is a colossal amount of work for the growers: the pistil of each flower must be removed by hand and dried. Once freed of 80% of its humidity, the pistil becomes a dried filament which represents the precious saffron. You will say “a step is missing, saffron is a powder in the end” and no… Real saffron comes in a filament pot.

To get an idea of the workload, it takes around 150 flowers to obtain 1 g of dry saffron. Production is therefore only profitable if you have a large farm.