Saffron, Possibly Replacing Opium in Afghanistan
David Pilling (Wed, 13 Sep 2017 04:30:06 PDT)

On 13/09/2017 03:39, Judy Glattstein wrote:

Here in the North West of England my saffron crocus are just appearing.
I doubt they will flower.

Stories about commercial saffron growing come round every year. The
other tale is that it is a single cultivated clone which no one knows
the origin of.

Maybe the market is not big enough for someone to genetically engineer a
plant that grows easily and produces lots of saffron.

The BBC did a good programme "The Spice Trail" [1] one episode of which
featured saffron cultivation - looked like hard labour. See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=S1r2M2YK9wg

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spice_Trail/

--
David Pilling
http://www.davidpilling.com/
_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…