Saffron

Song of Solomon 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

I painted this verse on a large rock a couple of years ago and put it in my garden as a memento to myself about the Lord. Today, as I write this, I am sipping my pomegranate tea and rereading this verse. It's funny, I am well acquainted with cinnamon and pomegranates, but the rest is rather foreign. I have tried saffron, and although people rant and rave about it, I do not keep it in my cabinet of spices and herbs.

The the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus is what makes saffron. It takes about 75,000 blossoms, which equates to 225,000 stigmas to make a single pound which all must be hand-picked . This is why saffron is considered to be the world’s most expensive spice. Being the worlds most expensive spice is not easy, for since a little bit of substance brings about a lot of cash, there are a lot of saffron counterfeiters.



I read that saffron is cultivated in India, Turkey, China and Iran and it's name means yellow in Arabic. (zafaran) I understand that the robe Buddhist monks wear are said to be saffron, yet they are not yellow. They look more like the stamens of the saffron flower, which is more of a maroon color. I guess they are so named after the stamens before the colors leech out yellow. I must say, the color of saffron is a beautiful color, both in the stamen state and diluted. It's this beautiful yellow color that saffron is noted for.

How interesting it is that Solomon writes of his love as a garden. Certainly, to be likened to healing and desirable herbs and delicate and delicious spices, not to mention expensive ones, like saffron, would be a compliment.