The truffle industry began operations 26 JUNE 2016 on a commercial scale in the 1980s, and is now supplying significant amounts of Black Perigord truffles all over New Zealand and into very selective export markets. Truffles are expensive to buy, but New Zealanders are now prepared to pay for expensive, top quality food…provided it is of top quality. Another food which has grown in popularity in restaurants and among local gourmets is home-grown saffron. This is in strong demand, not only for its own flavour but also, like truffles, its ability to draw out the flavour of rice, vegetables and a wide variety of meats. Saffron has been grown in New Zealand for some time, and the locally grown product is highly regarded by top chefs and gourmets. However, most varieties of saffron sold in New Zealand supermarkets come from Iran and are not top quality. Sarah Macdougall and her husband Dougal farm Minzion Station in the Teviot Valley (Central Otago). An active mother of three young girls (Eva (12), Meg (10) and Lucy (8)), Macdougall administrates a large beef and sheep operation and also runs Blooming Marvellous, her own floristry business based at the station. Interested in food preparation at all levels, Macdougall realised the unique properties of enhancement saffron brings to the art, and decided to grow and process her own saffron crop. Back in the 1980s, when the New Zealand food revolution was starting to gain momentum, Crop and Food recommended the Teviot Valley as being an ideal location for the growing of saffron, and so it has proved for Macdougall. She saw saffron as being a complementary crop to grow alongside the peonies she sells in her floristry business. Preparing a quarter-hectare plot near the Minzion Station homestead, Macdougall planted 6500 saffron corms. Saffron is a variety of the ornamental crocus which it resembles closely. Now the saffron flowers are being harvested, which is labour intensive and very time-consuming – one of the reasons why saffron is so expensive. “I pick the blooms before they open,” Macdougall says. “If the blooms open before harvesting, they cannot be used for edible saffron. Harvesting before blooms open makes it much easier to detach the stigmata and also prevents bees from smearing pollen all over the spice.” Macdougall is assisted in harvesting by her daughters, which makes her saffron more affordable. Sometimes she harvests twice a day, but always in the morning as the blooms become ready. First of all the flower is pinched off at the base. Then the picker peals back the petals to reveal the three red stigmata. They are attached to the rest of the flower by a yellow-white ‘stalk’ called a style. Then a fingernail slices the stigmata away from the style, with purists trying to keep the three threads connected to each other – this is seriously fiddly and not compulsory, Macdougall says. The drying of the threads of saffron is the trickiest part of the whole operation, and this Macdougall undertakes herself. Over-drying makes the threads brittle and gives them a bitter aftertaste. Under-dried threads are prone to rot. Perfectly dried saffron is a glossy, dark red colour. The threads have a waxy feel if you bite down on them gently, and the aroma is hay-like with notes of honey. “It is possible to dry saffron threads in the oven but it’s easier in a food dehydrator and this is what I do,” Macdougall says. “Drying time varies according to temperature, humidity, model of dehydrator and the quantity of threads. As a general rule, I dry the threads for one hour at 55degC and then in increments of 10 minutes if more is needed.” Macdougall finished harvesting at the end of May, and says the process is not only labour and time intensive but she needs to harvest around 150 flowers to process one gram of saffron for sale. Before venturing into saffron, Macdougall knew there was a market for it, although initially she thought of the venture as an enhancement of her own culinary activities. She is now developing a market for her saffron under the Blooming Marvellous brand. KIWI-GROWN SAFFRON A By Peter Owens MARKET WINNER I N G R E D I E N T S Food consumed by New Zealanders over the past two decades has become not only more varied but also more exotic, illustrated by the way in which almost every kitchen has shied away from cooking with fats towards the universal use of olive and cooking oils. Sarah Macdougall
1-48 FT June16
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