At that time, the saffron became Gâtinais' Red Gold
And also
The tops
What’s this?
This spice comes from Asia and the Middle East. In France, they cultivated it in Loiret since the 16th century!
The saffron is a bulb plant, with a nice violet flower full of stigmas, kind of thin red filaments: the only workable part of the flower, which gives the saffron spice!
Saffron is rare, so very expensive: picking and peeling take time (200 000 flowers = 1 kg of saffron)!
The little history
Primitively, the saffron was cultivated in Boynes, in Loiret. Then, the culture spreads all over the area: Pithiviers, Montargis, Boiscommun...
Then it declined in the 19th century. And yet, in 1987, a horticultural school reintroduced it in Loiret! A Saffron museum even opened in Boynes in 1997.
But where did this kind of saffron come from? A lord from Boynes, sir Pocquaire, introduced the saffron in the country: he was a knight who brought it back from Crusades, in the 13th century!