Brian Mathew is a botanist with a special interest in bulbs, including crocus, the plant that gives us saffron. His book “The Crocus” is one of the definitive works on this group of plants, and he has been awarded an MBE for his contribution to horticulture and botany. He’s also the father of Everleaf’s founder, Paul, which is one of the reasons saffron plays such an important role in Everleaf Forest. 

Not only does it give Forest its sunset hue, it contributes a lot to the aroma and flavour, with its unique characteristics of floral grass, rich hay and bitter honey playing across all parts of the drink.

That’s what excites us about saffron, but Dad, what fascinates you most about it?

Autumn-flowering Crocuses have to overcome a long, hot, dry period right through the summer and then burst into growth in the autumn. They’re remarkable as they can go from dormancy to flowering in just a month after some rain.

The unusual thing that’s specific to saffron is that it’s a mutation of a wild Crocus species that goes back thousands of years. Its actual origins aren’t known, but it’s likely that farmers in Ancient Greece came across this more vigorous version and carefully selected it. The saffron threads are larger than other species as it has three sets of chromosomes (triploid), but that also makes it sterile, so it will all have been cultivated from that original chance discovery ever since.

Saffron is a unique spice and is used not only in food and drink but also in perfumery, medicines and dyes. It’s a treasured ingredient and not cheap, but anyone can grow it at home.

Can you explain how someone in the UK could grow saffron?

It’s easy to buy Crocus sativus corms (saffron bulbs) from a garden centre, and they will flower well for the first year – just follow the instructions on the pack when you plant out in autumn, but the trick to keep it going for years after that is mimic the growing conditions in its native Mediterranean. Keep it somewhere really hot during the summer, maybe in pots in a particularly sunny place, then re-pot in rich soil in August/September time and start watering. Keep it damp from autumn through to spring, then dry out again. Being a vigorous triploid plant, it needs to be treated more like a vegetable than other bulbs, with lots of nutrients to help it grow.

We now know that saffron is relatively easy to grow at home in the UK, so why is it often referred to as ‘red gold’ and so expensive to purchase?

Well, you don't get much from each flower of course, and it’s hugely labour intensive -as you know, we’ve been out picking it together in Spain and it was back-breaking work! It’s so delicate that it’s resisted any mechanical attempts to harvest it, and then if you consider you need 150 flowers to produce 1g of dried saffron, that’s a lot of work! That’s not to say you can’t harvest what you grow from garden centre bulbs. It’s perfectly edible*. It’s the central thread that divides into three parts that you need. You can harvest when the flower is just finishing, that way you get to enjoy the flower as well!

[* just don’t confuse it with superficially similar autumn-flowering Colchicums though, as these can be toxic]

Saffron is widely used in cultures in staple dishes - for both flavour and colour, what gives saffron its distinctive taste and colouring?

There are a few fascinating phytochemicals in saffron, including crocin which gives that vivid golden-yellow colour, and others including picrocrocin, crocetin, and safranal that give the unique flavours; they are also being researched for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, with lots of potential modern medicinal uses, as well as many historical ones.

As you say, saffron has had many uses. What are some of the most interesting ways saffron has been used that we may not know about? 

It’s been used for everything from dyeing clothes (and even hair) to making rooms smell nice and of course all sorts of medicinal uses, both in ancient Greece and Medieval Europe. These ranged from wearing a bag of saffron around the neck to ward off the symptoms of smallpox, through to being a popular aphrodisiac and antidepressant. I think “good for brightening the spirits” was the saying!

There’s another good quote from John Ray, an English naturalist and botanist from the 1600s, who said “A moderate use of saffron is of service to the brain, renders the senses more vigorous, shakes off drowsiness, produces cheerfulness, strengthens the heart and opens the lungs.”  I’m not sure you can make claims like that on the Everleaf label, but I certainly enjoy my Everleaf Forest and tonic!