Peace & Plenty Farm
Growing Saffron in Lake County
by Holly Madrigal
An exceptionally exotic, faraway spice is now being cultivated very close to home. Crimson-gold saffron threads are plucked from purple-hued blooms right in Lake County, at Peace & Plenty Farm in Kelseyville. Saffron is harvested from the stigma of the saffron crocus (crocus sativus), a fall-blooming variety whose harvest begins around mid-October and lasts into November. It likes a Mediterranean climate and well-drained soil and requires zero water in the summer, which works well for Lake County. “We think of it as gathering the eyelashes of the sun,” shares Melinda Price, co-owner of the farm.
The exquisite aroma and flavor of saffron are used throughout much of the world to impart color, amber flavor notes, and complexity to culinary dishes. The largest grows of commercial saffron are found in Iran, with small amounts produced in Spain, Afghanistan, and Kashmir. “There are some neat groups like Rumi Spice that are helping war widows and veterans transition from growing opium to growing saffron. Iran is the predominant grower, but there are international sanctions. So, most of that is sent to Spain and rebranded as Spanish saffron. As a high-value crop, there is much adulteration in the market. There is a third more saffron sold in the world than is grown,” explains Melinda, noting that threads or stigmas of other flowers are often used to bulk up shipments.
Melinda and her husband, Simon Avery, began Peace & Plenty Farm in 2017 with no previous cultivation experience. The couple met in 2016, and both had a shared vision to begin farming. They began to research how they could make a living while working outside. What could they grow that could provide a decent income? Canadian intensive farmer Jean Martin Fortier was an inspiration, but the two were unsure if they could jump right into the level of planning required of that method, let alone make a living selling carrots or kale. “Ironically, we are making a living selling carrots and kale,” laughs Melinda. “Our farm stand has become a significant portion of our income. We are one of only a handful of farm stands in our area, and people often stop by.” The farm stand fridge is filled with crisp cucumbers, bags of bright green spinach, pesto, and saffron lemonade, which glows a brilliant yellow.
“So we researched possible things to grow: Hops—too much water; Mushrooms—we don’t want to live in a warehouse; Vanilla—no, not working in California,” explains Melinda. In one of those synchronistic moments, Simon was driving home from work when he heard a story on NPR about the University of Vermont’s program to help small farmers introduce saffron into their rotation of crops, following in the tradition of the Amish and Mennonite farms, which have been growing saffron for centuries. Far from a luxury item, it gets cooked into many dishes and steeped in milk for drinking, and they eat it as part of their daily diet. “And now I realize that having large families to help harvest must have been a benefit,” laughs Melinda. “Each of these blooms gets picked by human hands. No machine can do this. Working with a harvest crew is resource-intensive.”
After much research, they settled on saffron as their crop of choice. The spice has the highest value per weight in the world, more than gold, more than cannabis. “We did some Google searches, and no one was growing saffron in California, no one!” says Melinda. She went to a conference in Vermont that year and bought 7,000 corms (the small bulb that grows the plant) before they even purchased the farm. “I didn’t want to miss the timing,” says Melinda. “If I hadn’t bought them, we would have had to wait a whole other year!”
They started looking for property and quickly got priced out of Sonoma County. They saw a listing for the property in Kelseyville that was everything they wanted. An old horse ranch that had gone to seed, it had a lot of fences and about seven acres of star thistle. “It all happened quickly once we found it,” adds Melinda. “We moved in and were on a shoestring budget. Simon and I have built all this as we go. We didn’t have the capital to rent a machine or equipment to clear it, so Simon used a weed-whacker and cut it all down by hand. He is still ruined by it. But we were on a schedule. We had purchased corms and needed to get them in the ground by September of that year.”
The process has not been without challenges. Gophers were the primary nemesis the first year; now the entire saffron patch is underlaid with hardware cloth. They learned the hard way not to water heavily. “Little did we know that would cause some of the corms to rot,” exclaims Melinda. “We sure learned that lesson.” Another obstacle—the widely held belief that saffron is a rare spice only used with particular dishes. As evidenced by their experience with the Amish mentioned above, “We want to promote this spice as an everyday enjoyment, not just an ingredient to leave on the shelf,” explains Melinda.
Melinda and Simon are balanced with their specialties. Melinda thrives with the saffron sales, marketing, and managing their farm stays. Simon makes everything happen, building the beautiful spaces, planning construction, and working the farm. “Simon can build anything or fix anything,” says Melinda, “all the irrigation, and remodeling.” Everything on the farm is aesthetically stunning, from the board and batten farmstand and cold storage to the rows of 720 manicured lavender plants, tidy vegetable rows, and a hoop house where tiered racks of chamomile and calendula blossoms dry for their custom-made teas. The couple works together to harvest the vegetables and saffron.
To start reawakening and blooming in the fall, crocus sativus needs really cold nights and a bit of moisture. “When the bloom starts, it will be one or three flowers the first day, then the next day maybe thirty, then a hundred, and all of a sudden you will be picking 44,000 flowers in one day. That was our record last year.” Melinda describes what sets them apart is that they harvest at night time when the flowers are just starting to emerge. Experience has shown them that when the sunlight hits the blossoms, they begin to open and the moisture in the stigma escapes. By shifting to a nocturnal harvest, the saffron remains plump and extremely flavorful. “They are bright, bright fluorescent red and full of life.” They pluck the flowers out of the field intact. One bulb can produce twenty-five blossoms, sending out one bloom and then another a few hours later. They make multiple harvest passes through the night as new blossoms emerge.
They gather and place the full blooms in cold storage, then undertake the tedious process of plucking out each stigma. “We sit and develop these piles of flowers around us, piles of purple. We gather the blossoms and toss them out in piles under the walnut trees for the bees. The bees come and rustle around in the discarded blooms and become absolutely coated with the pollen. Even though we have removed the stigma, there is so much goodness left for them.”
The first harvest in 2017 was 25 grams, the second year yielded 300 grams, the third year they brought in a kilo, and last year they harvested two kilos of saffron! They are happy with this amount. They have no need to be on every supermarket shelf, but would rather curate their vendors and focus on creating really beautiful products. “For example, I may have been put on this earth to make our saffron-infused honey,” says Melinda. “We partnered with a local beekeeper to use his raw honey. It is just so special.”
The future is bright at Peace & Plenty Farm. The couple is restoring the historic barn and will begin booking weddings in early 2022. They currently host farm stays where guests can sleep in a restored vintage airstream in the saffron farm and gaze out across the lavender fields. If you have a moment, stop by the self-serve farm stand. Simon shares that they once had a visitor buy a bunch of greens, only to throw it over the fence to their happy chicken flock. “It was the silliest thing, using a $4 bunch of greens, so Melinda made little seed bags for 25¢ so that people can feed the birds,” he laughs. “Visitors love it, and we have really fat chickens now.”
The farm welcomed Martha Stewart Living Magazine a few years ago and is preparing for a visit by PBS this fall. The couple is in discussions to host farm-to-table dinners with Arnon, former chef at Chez Panisse, creating a saffron-influenced meal, with locally made Obsidian wines to complement the menu. The last dinner served out under the walnut trees sold out in three days, so act swiftly if you want to partake.
“We do like to think about the cool correlations between this plant and our lives. My ancestry is Dutch and of course, they grew bulbs. Simon is British and there used to be “Crocers” in England in medieval times who grew saffron. There is a town in England called Saffron-on-Walden. Even though they don’t have the experience of growing saffron, there are hints and echoes in our ancestry.” A barn on the farm proudly displays a large quilt square as part of the Quilt Trails project. The couple learned the name of the heritage quilt was the “Peace and Plenty” design, and it felt like providence. “We knew that would be the name of our farm, because what more could we want than Peace & Plenty,” adds Melinda.
As Ruby, the resident pup, sits in the shade of the farm stand, the light pours in golden beams through the saffron honey, making the individual jars of stigmas glow red. Take a cool jar of saffron lemonade from the fridge and pop the top. You will swear you can taste the sunshine on your tongue.
Peace & Plenty Farm
4550 Soda Bay Rd, Kelseyville | PeacePlentyFarm.com
Farmstand open daily 9am to dusk
Stay on the farm:airbnb.com/users/show/729211
Photo p 44 by Karen Pavone. All other photos by Holly Madrigal.
