Thousands of dollars for a spice: High Desert farm one of the only saffron growers in US
By McKenna Mobley, Victorville Daily Press,
2024-08-26
At $100 per gram, to say saffron is a delicacy would be an understatement.
Saffron is known for giving dishes like Spanish paella its rich flavor and golden tint and has long been a reputable spice for the upper class.
Imposter saffron floods the market; its low price is made possible by dyeing horsetail hair and disguising it as saffron, even down to the synthetic taste.
A majority of the real stuff is imported from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, primarily Iran and Iraq. Only a scattered handful of saffron farms bare roots in the United States, the biggest of which sits in the High Desert's backyard.
She's Rooted Home in Phelan is the biggest saffron farm in the nation, although the growing plot resembles more of a big side yard than the largest red spice hub in the U.S.
Spouses Tara and Chad Philipp, Apple Valley, and Hesperia locals are the faces behind the bulbs. Thrown into the business by chance and through grief, they recently packaged and shipped out 11,000 boxes of saffron corms, which closely resemble garlic bulbs, in just six days this season.
Their young business is booming in the High Desert and products like saffron corms, fresh saffron, and growing kits are packaged and shipped right from their garage, with community support from neighbors and the occasional stray mutt.
She's Rooted Home: An unexpected road to saffron
The couple bought their Phelan ranch 11 years ago. The small house was affordable, and just like the many fruit trees on the property, the couple grew to like it.
Plans to move out of the High Desert and start a thriving green agricultural farm quickly dissolved after their second child's dirt bike accident in 2021. He was hit by another rider, jaw broken, heart resuscitated, and airlifted to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles for operation.
Chad quit his trucking business in a heartbeat, wanting to spend more time with the kids instead of an exhausting 12 hours a day on the road, back bonded to the leather seat of his rig in a symbiotic union of sweat and mile markers.
The Philipps had three human mouths to feed and about 15 hungry livestock to keep in mind. Unsure about their next move, they were introduced to saffron one summer night while camping with the family who hit their son in the dirt bike incident.
The two families shared seafood paella under the High Desert moon, a first for the Philipps, and their new business idea came after the first bite of the smoked rice.
They initially planted 60,000 corms and crossed their fingers that it would work.
"I put the start-up cost on a credit card and just started hoping and praying," Chad told the Daily Press.
Tara already had a following on her homestead Instagram account and to her surprise, found that an overwhelming number of followers were interested in learning how to grow the world's most expensive spice.
"It's easier than most people think. If you live in agricultural zones 4-10, saffron can be planted and harvested. It can even grow under snow."
Maintaining the farm: Addressing saffron prices
Chad's crossed fingers seem to have brought prosperity and a more comfortable life for their four homeschooled children.
The Philipps only watered the soil once when breaking ground and haven't watered it in the 2.5 years since. The infrequent High Desert rain proved sufficient enough for the corms to double to about 420,000 bulbs underground.
One to four flowers are produced per corm. The red stigma of the lilac flower is the money maker, and each flower typically produces three of the expensive stigmas-soon to be turned-spices.
The spice is expensive because it's all hand-produced, Tara said.
No saffron farm can be maintained commercially — every flower is planted, harvested, and processed by hand.
She's Rooted Home only produces super Negin grade saffron, the reddest part of the stigma. This drives up the price, but the product is premium compared to other farms that sell the whole stigma, including the yellow and white portions.
According to Tara's math, it takes 324 flowers to produce 1 gram of super Negin saffron as opposed to 150 flowers if using the whole stigma. Additionally, one person on the Phelan farm averages 1,680 flowers picked per hour, and it takes one hour to separate 420 flowers and their stigmas.
There's only one other saffron farm in California that the Philipps know of, but their High Desert farm is the biggest in the U.S., according to Margaret Skinner at the University of Vermont, the leading university in saffron research.
The Philipps are only able to sell online because they have no time between homeschooling, managing an infant, taking care of countless farm animals, and tending to the farm to sell at the High Desert farmers markets.
Their best-selling products are a half gram of fresh saffron for $55 and a bundle of corms for $35. Over the years, they've sold about 200 grams.
Benefits & recipes for the world's most expensive spice
Research backing the medicinal use of saffron indicates that it can help with ADHD and dementia, is beneficial for vision and mood boosting, and is packed with antioxidants.
Tara recommends looking into Dr. Daniel Amen's study for more in-depth information. For over 20 years, Amen and researchers examined the effects of saffron and concluded that it has strikingly similar properties to the antidepressant Prozac.
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