Tara and Chad Philipp had never tasted saffron until they went camping with a family they recently met. Their new friends cooked a large pan of paella around the campfire. The Philipps fell for the sweet, musky flavor of saffron and were intrigued when they learned it was the world's most expensive spice.
On the way home, Mr. Philipp was already researching how to grow saffron on their three-acre plot in the Mojave Desert, east of Los Angeles. His wife wanted to start a new business so he could stop driving a truck and spend more time at home with their children.
“If I get something in my head, I get obsessed with it pretty quickly,” Mr. Philipp said. “I thought, 'We're going to do this.' ”
A few months later, in 2021, the couple put $20,000 on a credit card to order 60,000 tubers, the bulb-like stems from which the saffron flower grows. And last November, they harvested 250 grams of saffron, which they will sell for as much as $100 per gram – as much as ten times the price of high-quality imported saffron.
The Philipps are part of a resurgence of interest in growing saffron among American small farmers looking for a cash crop, and among chefs and backyard gardeners seeking the thrill of growing the spice. Today, farms grow saffron in California, Washington, Texas, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Martha Stewart planted saffron (of course) on her farm in Katonah, New York. And the Philipps have sold more than $1 million worth of tubers to 24,000 customers.
The fragrant, crimson threads of saffron have played a key role in many of the world's great cuisines since ancient times. They add a golden color and subtle bass note to Indian sweets, Moroccan tagines, Spanish paellas, French bouillabaisse and tachin, a classic Iranian rice dish with layers of meat and dried fruit. Today, Iran is the world's largest producer of saffron, but due to trade restrictions, consumers in the United States will see the spices imported from countries such as Spain, India and Afghanistan.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the US imported 175 tons of saffron in 2023. But domestic production of saffron is so small — a tiny fraction of the saffron sold in the United States — that no one collects data on it. One reason: Saffron from abroad is much cheaper because the labor required to painstakingly harvest each flower and remove the three delicate stigmas by hand is much cheaper than in the United States.
It may come as a surprise that saffron grows in the United States at all. In fact, Americans have been cultivating it since colonial times, when it traded at the same price as gold on the Philadelphia commodity exchange. The Pennsylvania Dutch in particular embraced saffron and used it in tea, soups and cakes. They even exported it to Spanish colonies in the Caribbean until trade was disrupted by the War of 1812.
The modern Saffron gold rush began in 2015 at the University of Vermont, where entomologist Margaret Skinner and agroecologist Arash Ghalehgolabbehbahani began investigating the plant's viability in colder climates.
“My first reaction was, 'Growing in Vermont? That's impossible,” said Dr. Skinner.
But saffron flourished even in the northernmost parts of the state. In 2017, the university's newly established North American Center for Saffron Research and Development held its first workshop. Farmers from across the country traveled to Burlington to learn how to grow, process and market saffron.
Melinda Price, founder of Peace and Plenty Farm in Kelseyville, California, was one of them. As a former technical director, she had little experience in agriculture, but she knew she and her husband “couldn't make a living selling carrots and kale.” Ms. Price researched several niche crops: wasabi, vanilla, hops.
Saffron had several advantages that the others lacked. Tubers planted in September will bloom in November. The two-week harvest season was intense, but the plants needed little attention the rest of the year. And saffron tubers multiply underground. A farmer who plants 1,000 tubers may have 4,000 the following year.
In 2021, Peace and Plenty harvested 700,000 flowers, yielding around 3.5 kilos of saffron. Ms. Price sold it to home cooks and to chefs.
“It smells and tastes so much more intense,” says Perry Hoffman, the chef and partner at the Boonville Hotel and Restaurant in Northern California and a Peace and Plenty customer. “You can see that the threads are harvested at their peak, which means less saffron ends up further into the dishes and makes it more cost-effective.”
Despite her success, Ms Price now grows a smaller crop of saffron. She has battled weeds and aggressive gophers. Harvesting saffron is a grueling job. First the small flowers are picked in the dark on hands and knees; Saffron crocuses are best harvested before the sun rises and the flowers open. Each stigma must then be carefully removed by hand.
“I did one flower every five seconds at my fastest, which sounds good,” she said. “But when you have to do 50,000, it's daunting.”
Today, Peace and Plenty uses much of its saffron to make products like saffron lemonade and saffron-infused honey, which make solid money — and don't require a huge harvest. “Many more people drink tea than make paella,” Ms Price said.
Jette Mandl-Abramson has come to a similar conclusion. She and her husband were among the first American farmers to take the plunge, planting 120,000 tubers on an acre and a half of their organic farm, Calabash Gardens, in Newbury, Vt. in 2020.
The first years brought encouraging harvests. But heavy rains and a heavy freeze-and-thaw cycle led to yields of just six grams of saffron in 2022 and 60 grams in 2023. Although this year's crop weighed more than 360 grams, Ms Mandl-Abramson says she is also focused on making saffron products. A saffron tincture, used for medicinal purposes, is her bestseller.
“I would like to say it changes people's lives,” says Dr. Skinner, who helped spark smallholder farmers' new interest in saffron. “But usually it adds a little bit to the overall bottom line.”
The Philipps, who farmed in the Mojave Desert, also hoped to make money by selling saffron directly to consumers. But to their surprise, the much cheaper tubers have captured the imagination of customers, many of whom have now harvested their first crop and will have salted, ready-to-use saffron this month.
“I honestly don't even know what saffron tastes like,” says Gary Overstreet, a retired school maintenance worker and avid gardener in Apple Valley, California, who bought and planted a dozen tubers this fall. “It is the most expensive spice in the world. I want to make some rice and see how it tastes.”
Paul Miller, a retiree and musician in Happy Camp, California, has purchased tubers from the Philipps four times. Because his home is “75 miles from the nearest stoplight,” he said, he decided five years ago that it would be smart to grow his own food.
Mr. Miller grows a lot of fruits and vegetables, but is drawn to perennials. It has a purple tree cabbage, a green one that can grow up to 10 feet tall, and a sweet tuber called yacón, or Peruvian ground apple.
“It's almost like bragging,” Mr. Miller said of growing saffron. “It's special. And I like that it multiplies itself. I think that's smart nowadays.”
Backyard gardeners, who plant only a few dozen tubers, don't face the same challenges as farmers trying to grow on a large scale. It only takes about an hour to harvest 150 flowers and remove the stigmas. That's about a gram of saffron, as much as most Americans will use in a year.
Sales of the saffron tubers have proven so successful that Mr. Philipp is almost on the verge of quitting driving his truck for good. “It's all about spreading the message,” he said. “Who wouldn't want to grow the most expensive herb in the world?”
