Edibles

Why You Should Grow Saffron

August 6, 2018 by Horsford Team

First off, who doesn’t love a fall-flowering plant? Saffron’s beauty and landscape opportunity should sell itself, but there are far more reasons why saffron should end up in your garden and on your dinner plate.

Health Benefits

Its real health benefits lie in the saffron stigmas (Pictured above). These sticky orange-red stigmas are the part of the plant used globally for culinary cuisines. The saffron stigmas contain carotenoids which are powerful antioxidants that help regulate stress, cancer, infections, and that help boost immune function. Considering 80% of your immune health comes from your gut, we could all use a little more saffron in our diet. Nutritionally, saffron is very high in iron, manganese, copper, potassium, calcium, selenium, zinc, and magnesium. It also contains high mineral sources, such as vitamin A, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin-C.

Saffon in Your Garden

Saffron can grow in a variety of conditions, but would do best in a garden bed. This crocus variety is a corm and should be grown like any other bulb such as tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. They are a hot and dry loving plant and growing saffron can be an easy addition for any gardener, and offers not only landscape beauty but a healthy investment with a delicious return.

Saffron Available at Horsford’s

This fall we will be offering saffron corms at:

10 corms – $15
25 corms – $35
50 corms – $60

There will be a limit of 50 corms per customer. Supplies are limited, so if you plan to plant some saffron in your landscape, please contact us and pre-order today! Call the nursery at (802) 425-2811, or email info@horsfordnursery.com.

We will also be joining you and planting some saffron here at Horsford’s, in an effort to develop a sustainable, nutrient rich, growing medium for Vermont saffron growers! Stay tuned, as the projects begin this fall.

-Saffron Production Team aka Steve

Saffron in October

October 19, 2017 by Horsford Team

For those of you who joined us in growing saffron this year, you should be seeing some movement in your corms above ground, and in some cases flowers beginning to bloom! This is a very exciting time considering all of our landscape has started to transition into winter.

Saffron can handle frost, and will persist even as snow begins to cover the ground. As the flowers begin to bloom, you should start to harvest them. Pluck the saffron stigmas, and if you’re interested, the stamens as well, and leave them out in an area to dry for 48 hours. This should be a place with little breeze as these stigmas are easily blown around. Once the stigmas are dry, store your saffron in an air tight container and begin using in in your future saffron recipes. The stamens can be used as dye, and have traditionally been the source of the color yellow in Nepalese cultures.

To harvest your flowers, pick the flower below its purple petals every two days, and place in a container to bring to an area where you can process the flower. Pulling back the petals to reveal the stigmas and stamens, use whatever tool you find comfortable to separate with. You should see 3-5 flowers per corm planted, so if you only pick one, don’t worry there’s more to come.

After the flower has been harvested the corm will remain vegetative and continue to develop daughter corms well into winter. Eventually the corm’s filaments will die back and the corm will go dormant until the following fall.

Our corms are 100% above ground here at Horsford’s and have begun to show flower development! Have fun and please share your saffron gardens and dishes with us, as we close out the harvest season!

-Saffron Production Team aka Steve

Onion Starts

March 30, 2017 by E. Schilling

We sell Onion Starts at the Garden Center each spring. These are little bareroot plants that were started from seed and harvested after growing for 6-8 weeks. They come to us dormant with dried roots. However, once planted, they plump up and turn bright green. We’ll have the following varieties for this season:

Red Wing – red onion, stores 8-10 months

Red River Sweet – red onion, super sweet, best eaten fresh during growing season

Walla Walla – white onion, famous, big bulb, sweet, short keeper that stores for 1-2 months

Highlander – white onion, good for long keeping

Lancelot Leeks – big, beautiful leeks great for cooking and soups

Onions growing in field — Onions prefer full sun, and moist, well-drained soil

Some planting tips:

Onion starts can be planted 4-5 weeks before the last spring freeze. So, that means get them out there with your peas and early greens.

Choose an area that gets full sun all day and prep your site by loosening the soil. Onions prefer to grow in loose, fertile soil that drains well. If it is compact add some compost and fork it in. Onions do well in a raised bed of sorts (or a raised row). A bed or row 4 inches high by 20 inches wide is good. Plant the onions either 2 or 4 inches apart. When planting, fertilize onions with a 10-20-10 fertilizer spreading at half a cup of fertilizer per 10 linear feet. Do not put the fertilizer directly on top of the onions; instead work it in the soil about 4 inches away from the onion. If you planted your onions 2 inches apart, thin them to 4 inches apart after 45 days and eat them as spring onions. This allows the others to mature to a larger size.

Onions ready to harvest — Fallen tops indicate onions are ready to harvest

Water thoroughly after planting, and as needed thereafter. Onions are shallow-rooted so they will dry out quickly. You never want the soil in your onion patch to be dry and cracked. Every 2-3 weeks fertilize the plants again with ammonium sulfate. Again, half a cup per 10 feet of row. Sprinkle it on top of the other fertilizer. No need to work it into the soil, but do be sure to water well after each application. Stop fertilizing when the onions start to bulb. You’ll know the bulb process is beginning when the soil starts to heave as the onions push it away from their base.

You can harvest your onions any time but if you want big flavorful bulbs wait until you see the green tops start to turn yellow or brown and fall over. This should happen roughly 3.5 months after planting. Now the fun starts. Go out early one sunny morning and pull the onions out of the ground. Leave them on the ground to dry in the sun for 2 days. They are dry enough for storing when the entire neck of the onion is dry all the way to the surface of the onion. You can then clip back the roots and cut the tops, leaving about one inch. They are now ready for eating or storing.

Onion braids are a beautiful garden gift

Another fun way to store onions is to cure them and then braid the dried tops instead of cutting them. A braid of onions is a lovely gift for a friend or neighbor! Here’s a video on how to make an onion braid.

It is important to research whether the onions you’re growing are best eaten fresh or if they are good for both fresh eating and storing. Not all onions are good keepers. And nothing smells worse than a bunch of rotten onions.