When my husband Peter and I relocated from London to Le Marche a few years back, our dream was the dream of many: to move to the countryside. Of course being the total no-nonsense Virgo that I am, I had done my due diligence and decided that I could support myself running a small guesthouse and producing organic saffron. In Le Marche there were already a few saffron producers and that gave me hope as the demand was clearly there. Just before we moved back, my dad even offered for us to take over his casolare and land in the countryside near Urbania where there was enough potential to start both our saffron farm and guesthouse. Our countryside dream was a centimetre to fulfilment but then we got cold feet. Although we initially greeted my dad’s offer with joy, we very matter-of-factly assessed that we were not quite ready yet for a life in the middle of nowhere, especially with a 5 year old child. So my dad stayed in his beautiful but remote house and we ended up moving to my hometown, the pretty coastal city of Fano.
That unfinished business with saffron always bothered me though, so when I registered that the person behind the saffron company Zafferano Volpini was actually Andrea Volpini, a talented videographer with whom I had worked at a few of my events, I decided to get in touch with him and ask a few questions. I was indeed curious to know more about saffron farming and to understand if the decision made a few years back would have been a missed an opportunity or a dodged bullet.
During our chat I discovered that Andrea is not only a dedicated saffron farmer and talented videographer with Aberrazioni Cromatiche Studio, he is also a former Italian premier league volleyball player, an endurance athlete, a passionate cook, a food blogger who has collaborated with the likes of Tasty and an adventurous traveller. He is one of those people that shines with real enthusiasm for life and whose curiosity always pushes them to a new challenge. Chatting to him it was a way to understand the real ins and outs of running a saffron farm and I understood that you definitely require a high degree of stamina and endurance to run a farm.
How did the idea of farming saffron come about?
It all started a few years ago, when my parents bought a casolare with some land in the countryside near Recanati and I was suddenly presented with the opportunity to grow my own food and farm. Food and cooking had always been two major passions of mine and for years I had curated a rather successful YouTube channel called Enjoy Different Taste where I shared recipes inspired by my land and my trips around the world. Saffron had always fascinated me and I was particularly captivated by the idea of organic saffron that is grown almost entirely by hand: as far as I had researched, growing organic saffron meant not using mechanical machinery much and involved a lot of personal commitment but I was ready to take on this new challenge.
How did you start and how did you turn a personal interest into a business?
I started small with just a handful of bulbs in 2015 but I quickly got the hang of it and year after year I planted more and more bulbs, increasing the production. In time both my experience and the quantity of pistils produced grew, so I decided to take a leap of faith and turn my passion into a business. I registered my azienda agricola (registered farm), created a website with e-commerce, activated all my social medial channels and Zafferano Volpini was officially born. My saffron can now be purchased online by direct users and even restaurants.
What is the yearly calendar of the saffron produced?
The production of saffron develops in several phases. The first phase (late June) involves delicately removing the old bulbs from the soil with the aid of a tool we call scavapatate. This scavapapate tool will assist in opening the soil and all the bulbs will then be gently removed by hand. The bulbs are then to cleaned and divided per size. These bulbs can also be sold.
Then we need to prepare the soil: initially I did everything by hand with the aid of spade but as the production grew I got myself a small milling machine. I personally do not use any fertilizer, not even manure.
Mid-august is usually the best time for planting the bulbs. I position them in rows, 10cm apart. Larger farms, such as the ones in Iran or Spain, do this operation with the help of specific machines, but I do everything by hand. Between October and November we will see the first tufts spring from the soil and every morning around 5 or 6 we go to the field and pick the purple crocus flowers. The crocus should be picked early in the morning when it is still closed otherwise the pistil will get damp and ruined. Straight after the flower must be opened, the pistil collected and dried. I initially dried the pistils in the air, but as my production grew I decided to invest in a dessicator.
How is Le Marche a good place for cultivating saffron?
Le Marche is a very good place for farming saffron, both closer to the coast where I am, and in the mountains. The hills of the region are really good for it. It is essential to farm saffron on a sloped hill as saffron does not like humidity and on a slope the water always drains downwards making sure that there are no puddles and that the air is drained properly.
What’s the hardest thing about farming saffron?
If you want your product to be organic that means that no herbicides can be used and all the weeds that grow near the saffron plants have to be removed manually. I personally remove weeds by hands almost twice a week, all year round. The only place where I can remove the weeds mechanically is between the rows, but not between the plants themselves. You understand it takes a lot of commitment to be an organic saffron farmer.
Also, if you consider that certain harvest days you might pick a few hundred of flower (at sunrise of course!), then the pistilli have to be removed and dried all within the same day. It’s not for everyone!
What are the traits of the organic saffron farmer?
Definitely stubbornness and perseverance. If you don’t have these two you won’t go far with the saffron, especially if you grow it completely organic. You just can’t give up and must devote yourself to the land, especially if you want some results and create a sellable product.
To conclude, would you share a tasty recipe with us?
Sure, here it is. Enjoy!
SAFFRON PANNA COTTA WITH CHOPPED PISTACHIOS
Ingredients:
- 500 ml of fresh double cream
- 0,10 gr of dry saffron pistils
- 8 gr of isinglass
- 80 gr of sugar
- 40 gr of chopped pistachio
- Soak the isinglass in cold water for 10 minutes.
- Slightly warm 100 gr of cream and add the saffron. Cover with a lid to retain the aroma.
- Pour the remaining cream and sugar in a small pot, warm up but do not bring to boil, stirring constantly.
- Remove the pot from the hob, rinse the isinglass and add to the mix.
- Pour the mix into a mould and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
- Remove from the mould, garnish with chopped pistachios and serve.
This article features on aniseeddiaries.com
All photos by Andrea Volpini