A History of Saffron - The most expensive spice in the world

The Delicious Legacy

A huge volcanic explosion...

An city buried under tonnes of pumice and ash...

No, we are not talking about Pompeii or Herculaneum, but another place and volcano, at least one thousand five hundred years before...

An island civilization destroyed by a cataclysmic eruption around 1600 BCE, roughly 3600 years ago!

Akrotiri, a town on the Greek island of Thera, (what we call now Santorini) was buried and forgotten till the 20th century.

This unfortunate event for the Minoans, was great luck for us, as archaeologists unearthed an almost intact city. Amongst the many discoveries were many frescoes.

And on some of them were depicted women picking saffron from crocus flowers! Which for the purposes of our episode today, is perhaps the oldest

depiction of saffron picking ever!

You see the spice of our discussion today, saffron from the flower crocus sativus it always had a magnetic attraction to humans!

With it's vibrant golden colour, saffron was considered important as a medicine, dye and food. And it still is the most expensive spice in world! Worth almost $10,000 per kilo, it still holds it's importance in our cuisine!

So to enlighten us and explore it's history I invited the food historian and author Sam Bilton who's book "Fool's Gold - A History of British Saffron" explores the fascinating story behind saffron in the British Isles!

Let's find out more about the most valuable spice in the world, Saffron!

Sam has recently released another book for The British Library series "The Philosophy of..." about Chocolate.

You can find out more about her and her books and podcast here:

https://www.sambilton.com/

Enjoy!

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

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