this is saffron and just one pound of it
can cost you
five thousand dollars it's easily the
world's most expensive spice
the next most expensive spice vanilla at
about 600
a pound so what makes saffron so wildly
expensive
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for starters saffron is a complicated
spice to harvest
my name is arash kaligolov ahani
i am postdoctoral research associate at
university of vermont
to harvest the saffron you need a lot of
hand works to
pick up the flower separate saffron is
dehydrated or dry stigma the stigma is
the female part of clever
you have to separate that stigma dry
that
and for all of this procedure you need
hand works labors i prefer to harvest
the flowers by hand because i don't like
to
damage other parts of plants saffron
comes from the saffron crocus flower
and each flower has three red stigmas
that's the saffron
the yield of saffron is really low you
know you have to hire a lot of flavors
to harvest
four pounds of saffron per acre is
nothing
just one pound of saffron requires 170
000 flowers the purple flowers bloom
over a six week period
from late september to early december
there's also a specific time of day to
harvest them
then we have a high relative humidity in
the air
so it can affect the saffron saffron
quality
also sunlight can break the
chemical structure in the saffron so
we prefer to harvest the saffron early
morning every day
or if you don't have flour every day
every two days
ninety percent of the world's saffron is
grown in arid fields in iran
but harvesting all that saffron comes at
a price why
iran is the main producer of saffron
because
workers are available and they are cheap
in some part is like slavery
you know their behavior with labor i
hate that i should say
based on my experience you know they
usually
workers came to to farm in around around
five six a.m and
they left around four p.m most saffron
harvesters are women
getting paid a maximum of five dollars a
day
saffron is not only grown in iran it's
grown in morocco
spain italy the netherlands afghanistan
india and even in the united states why
the u.s
though many americans have never eaten
saffron the u.s
imported 25 tons in 2013 and 46 tons in
2016.
i knew that saffron has a good
resistance to the cold weather
if you cover their mountain state
with a lawyer of plastic you will have a
safe situation that we have in
iran what's so great about saffron
over centuries it's proven useful in
many situations
saffron is most commonly used in cooking
as an iranian
every day we use saffron in our dishes
you know we cook with saffron a lot
so far i couldn't find an alternative
for the taste of saffron
it gives paella its signature flavor and
golden color
it's also used in broths breads and
marinades
when saffron is broken down it creates a
golden dye
everything is not just about saffron
production procedures
saffron contains some chemical
components
which are really expensive like
picrosin crossing and saffron saffron
there are three main components or
compounds
which are responsible about the taste
and
color and smell of saffron you know when
we are talking about saffron quality
technically we are talking about these
three chemical components
saffron inherently is a valuable thing
people have tried passing turmeric red
marigold petals
and lily flower stigmas as saffron but
the flavor and dye is totally different
in large quantities saffron can be a
potent happiness-inducing narcotic
and research suggests it may help reduce
the symptoms for alzheimer's
depression and pms who knew this little
spice packed such a punch
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you