The world's most expensive spice could provide a lifeline to Colorado farmers

The world's most expensive spice could provide a lifeline to Colorado farmers Swati Mestri Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Chief Editor Alexander the Great, king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, reportedly bathed in saffron to heal his battle wounds. Doctors once prescribed this rare plant as a treatment for the bubonic plague. Cleopatra even used it as a fragrance to entice potential suitors. And now, this tiny flower associated with the Middle East could have a new use: providing Colorado farmers with supplemental income in the drought-stricken American West. Gauging the potential for saffron as a Colorado crop is the goal of new research underway on the green roof of Colorado State University Spur in Denver. Reece Bailey, a horticulture graduate student, has planted dozens of saffron bulbs in the campus's urban gardens to determine how the world's most expensive spice fares in the unique climate of Colorado's high plains. "One thing that's always been interesting to me is new ideas and novel ways of integrating crops into our environments," said Bailey, who grew up in Aurora and has been working at Spur's green roof for three years. He said saffron piqued his interest because of its value: 1 pound (454 grams) of saffron typically costs between $600 and $5,000, with some varieties fetching up to $10,000. To put that into perspective, vanilla—the second-most-expensive spice in the world—costs between $90 and $225 a pound. Iran produces roughly 85% of the world's saffron. The country's mountainous, semiarid climate has a lot in common with Colorado. Bailey says that makes the Centennial State an ideal place to experiment with growing a spice known as "red gold." And since the crop requires very little water, it can provide extra income without requiring additional irrigation. Finally, because saffron typically blooms in November, it could provide otherwise cash-strapped Colorado farmers with late-season yields. Of course, there's a reason saffron is rare. Farmers harvest only the three needlelike red stigmas at the center of saffron's purple flowers. They bloom for just a few hours each morning. Plucking out stigmas is an exercise in patience that often involves tweezers and a lot of focus. Each bit of stigma requires many hours of work, and those add up—especially since it takes roughly 75,000 saffron flowers to produce 1 pound (454 grams) of the dried stigmas that are turned into a spice. "It's certainly not the easiest crop to grow or the easiest crop to work with, but the investment can be well worth it," Bailey said. "For a lot of farmers, the price for their goods isn't keeping up with the price of inputs, so what we're really trying to do is find new crops that will work with Colorado's climate and for our producers' bottom line," said Sam Hahn, the next-generation and specialty crops program manager at the Colorado Department of Agriculture. "Saffron has a high labor input, but it could really be a boon for our farmers." CSU's saffron research is a first step in determining whether saffron could work as a supplemental crop in Colorado. Apart from knowing whether it will grow in the state's climatic conditions, farmers would need to understand necessary capital investments, labor and equipment needs, bulb sources and marketing channels, among other key considerations. A Middle Eastern crop made for Colorado Bailey's saffron plots sit 75 feet (23 meters) off the ground on the roofs of two buildings at the CSU Spur campus. The Denver skyline and Rocky Mountains loom in the distance, and the sounds of highway traffic and nearby construction fill the air. One of his research plots is surrounded by a bed of native Colorado plants, which in early fall was dominated by large yellow sunflowers. The other is in what's known as an agrivoltaic system, where plants grow underneath solar panels. "I'm always curious about how different plants evolve and how they adapt to green roofs, and lately, I've come to realize that saffron is almost the ideal plant for these environments," said Jennifer Bousselot, an associate professor of horticulture and landscape architecture at CSU and Bailey's faculty adviser. Spur's rooftop gardens are engineered to make the best possible use of water, and the soil has specifically curated characteristics. Since saffron is relatively shade tolerant, Bailey said it's proven to thrive in these agrivoltaic environments—in fact, his research has so far revealed that saffron yield nearly doubles under the partial shade provided by solar arrays. "This could provide cash flow value for farmers who want to use solar as an energy source, or who happen to be in an urban agriculture setting," Bailey said. His findings about irrigation were also promising. He said growing saffron requires roughly half the amount of water that's used to grow corn and could even rely on rainfall alone. "This crop is incredibly drought resistant," Bailey said. Hahn said experimenting with crops like saffron is exactly what Colorado's agricultural producers will need to do in the face of a changing climate. In addition to providing extra income to farmers, its late-season bloom could provide valuable agricultural jobs during a time of year when many of these workers typically are unemployed. "It's so important that we experiment with these high-value crops to see if it can supplement the market in our state and keep us competitive," Hahn said. A tiny plant with countless benefits Bailey is also experimenting with saffron on CSU's Foothills Campus and at the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms, which sit at the base of the mountains just south of Denver. Lauren Hazlett, one of the head growers on the solar array at Chatfield Farms, said it's heartening to see a plant that continues to bloom even as others fade during the late season. "I never thought I'd ever be able to see saffron growing, especially in Colorado—it's something I always associated with the other side of the world," she said. These saffron blooms may one day become more common. Bousselot and Bailey have sent saffron bulbs to Colorado farmers in the communities of Paonia, Pueblo and Montrose, and the farmers will report back on how the plants benefited their operations. Meanwhile, research about a plant that has been used medicinally for thousands of years has only intensified—and it could make saffron even more valuable. Some studies have shown that it could help boost mental health and alleviate depression, and others have shown that it could be used as an anti-inflammatory. The spice is also a mainstay in dishes like paella and risotto and is increasingly sought as an ingredient in perfumes. "Up until now, we haven't really been able to study saffron in Colorado at a deeper level, but the demand is there, and I only think we'll be talking about it more and more," Bailey said. Provided by Colorado State University