GOOD AS GOLD

Australian saffron is difficult to grow, expensive to buy and completely, utterly captivating, 

-  ALEXANDRA CARLTON

People like to put all sorts of lovely adjectives around the idea of growing saffron,” says Gamila MacRury, from saffron farm Gamila at Beechworth in northeast Victoria. “My simple description is this: tedious.” When cultivated in Australia the prized deep red spice – the colour of sunset and fire, according to Hindu lore – sells for around the same price as gold, but it certainly makes those growing it work for their money. “I bought 100 corms [the bulb that produces the saffron crocus] in my first year. I got all these flowers, which I thought was excellent so I bought 200 corms the next year,” she says. “And then I spent five years with the saffron kicking me in the arse.”