Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
Why is there saffron in Walden?
Recently, I have been seduced into forming agricultural interests, in part by Wouter Kriel’s articles on saffron in Farmer’s Weekly [ see FW, 29 October 2021], but also by the author Pat Willard.
Her book Secrets of Saffron is charmingly subtitled ‘The Vagabond Life of the World’s Most Seductive Spice’, and the chapter that most tickled my fancy is entitled ‘The Making of a Town’. The town in question is Saffron Walden.
HOW CURIOUS
The very name ‘Saffron Walden’ begs several questions, including: What does Walden mean? Where is Saffron Walden? Why is there saffron in Saffron Walden?
‘Walden’, in Old Saxon, means ‘town of the Britons’, and Saffron Walden is situated in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England in the UK.
But what is saffron doing in Walden, and how long has it been there? More specifically, why would saffron be cultivated in damp and misty England, when saffron bulbs (the correct term for which is ‘corms’ or ‘croci’) are prone to rot in wet autumns?
The answer is not, as Bob Dylan had it, “blowing in the wind”. In fact, it is to be found in the soil, and Willard tells us the following about Essex: “This part of England had once been submerged under a primordial sea whose ancient floor was thick with the oozy skeletal remains of tiny protozoic foraminifera; when the tide retreated, the calcium-rich ooze remained, drying and hardening to form chalk that lightened the soil and improved its drainage. Buried in such a delightful medium, the corms were kept almost as dry as they would have been on the shimmering [Greek island of] Crete, as content to flourish in abundant radiance as on the sun-baked Persian plains.”
There is clearly a moral to the story thus far. Should you forget the story, remember the moral. If you want to cook an eland, first shoot the eland; if you want to grow saffron, first get your drainage right. If you do, your croci might flourish, not only north of the N1, but nearer to civilisation which, according to the Ancients, ends at the Hex River Valley.
By now you might have begun to suspect that the unravelling of this story may be as labour-intensive as the plucking of stigma from the flowers of croci. But please bear with me; I shall try at least to entertain.
SO, WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
To revert to a question that I left begging an answer: how long has saffron been in Saffron Walden? Probably (but not certainly, as much evidence is shrouded by time and the English mists) since around 1350, and was perhaps introduced by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
But perhaps not: Willard calls these knights a “tight-fisted bunch”, who may well have kept not only themselves, but also their corms, to themselves, all the better to control the market.
Not all of the medieval farmers of Saffron Walden were willing to share the wealth created through the cultivation of saffron. Willard writes: “… so the
Lord, considering their unthankfulness, gave them ever since such scarcities …” To this part of the story there is also a moral: in a free market economy, attempts to control the market might succeed at first, but they will not prevail for long. (Tie thee not strings to thy croci!)
AN INQUIRING MIND
One final question remains: why would a tax advocate [such as myself] develop an interest in saffron?
The answer (surprisingly) lies in cannabis. And, no, I wasn’t smoking it. I was, while on holiday in Wilderness, pondering the welfare of one of my clients, a producer of medical cannabis.
What was troubling me was this: is it not unwise for any company to focus upon a single crop, bearing in mind that, sooner rather than later, supply might exceed demand?
In the search for a complementary crop, all roads led to Dr Google. In a review of the 10 most profitable crops for small-scale intensive cultivation, saffron headed the list.
I delved deeper and deeper, ever more entranced, and yes, ultimately seduced [by saffron].
Like saffron corms, I have my productive periods and my dormant ones.
Having been an inactive author for a while, I am now rejoicing in the quickening of new life.
Next on my ‘agricultural’ list is an enquiry into [broad-based black economic empowerment], as well as the Liquor Act as it pertains to wine producers and wine retailers.
Having begun with a question,
I am driven to conclude with one. (Wine farmers, take note!)
Is your Sauvignon too Blanc?
Wouter Scholtz, via email
WHY WOULD SAFFRON BE CULTIVATED IN DAMP AND MISTY ENGLAND, WHEN THE CORMS ARE PRONE TO ROT?
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