{"id":19224,"date":"2025-01-02T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T10:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19224"},"modified":"2025-01-02T10:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T10:23:12","slug":"how-saffron-a-precious-import-became-an-american-cash-crop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19224","title":{"rendered":"How Saffron, a Precious Import, Became an American Cash Crop"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tara and Chad Philipp had never tasted saffron until they took a camping trip with a family they\u2019d recently met. Around the campfire, their new friends cooked a big pan of paella. The Philipps fell for the sweet, musky flavor of saffron \u2014 and were intrigued to learn it was the world\u2019s most expensive spice.<\/p>\n

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 was keen to build a new business so he could stop driving a truck and spend more time at home with their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get something in my mind, I get obsessed with it pretty quickly,\u201d Mr. Philipp said. \u201cI was like, \u2018We\u2019re going to do this.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A few months later, in 2021, the couple put $20,000 on a credit card to order 60,000 corms, the bulb-like stems that produce the saffron flower. And this past November, they harvested 250 grams of saffron, which they\u2019ll sell for a whopping $100 per gram \u2014 as much as 10 times the price of high-quality imported saffron<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tara and Chad Philipp at their home in the Mojave Desert, east of Los Angeles.<\/span>Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Philipps are part of a resurgence of interest in growing saffron among American small farmers in search of a cash crop, and among cooks and backyard gardeners seeking the thrill of growing the spice. Today, farms are growing saffron in California<\/a>, Washington<\/a>, Texas<\/a>, Pennsylvania<\/a> and Vermont<\/a>. Martha Stewart (of course) has saffron<\/a> planted on her farm in Katonah, N.Y. And the Philipps have sold more than $1 million worth of corms<\/a> to 24,000 customers.<\/p>\n

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Tara and Chad Philipp had never tasted saffron until they took a camping trip with a family they\u2019d recently met. Around the campfire, their new friends cooked a big pan of paella. The Philipps fell for the sweet, musky flavor of saffron \u2014 and were intrigued to learn it was the world\u2019s 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 was keen to build a new business so he could stop driving a truck and spend more time at home with their children.\u201cIf I get something in my mind, I get obsessed with it pretty quickly,\u201d Mr. Philipp said. \u201cI was like, \u2018We\u2019re going to do this.\u2019 \u201dA few months later, in 2021, the couple put $20,000 on a credit card to order 60,000 corms, the bulb-like stems that produce the saffron flower. And this past November, they harvested 250 grams of saffron, which they\u2019ll sell for a whopping $100 per gram \u2014 as much as 10 times the price of high-quality imported saffron.Tara and Chad Philipp at their home in the Mojave Desert, east of Los Angeles.Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York TimesThe Philipps are part of a resurgence of interest in growing saffron among American small farmers in search of a cash crop, and among cooks and backyard gardeners seeking the thrill of growing the spice. Today, farms are growing saffron in California, Washington, Texas, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Martha Stewart (of course) has saffron planted on her farm in Katonah, N.Y. And the Philipps have sold more than $1 million worth of corms to 24,000 customers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19226,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19227,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19224\/revisions\/19227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}