Saffron

Il Croco di Pietro Perugino” is the name of the consortium, adopted  in Città della Pieve in 2003, to benefit and guarantee the high quality of an extra fine saffron variety grown in the area of Trasimeno lake, eastern Tuscany and Monteleone d’Orvieto’s lands. “La Giuiaia”, together with 24 different farms producing pure saffron, actually aim for the IGP quality mark to be granted as proper acknowledgement of a precious rural heritage. Based on the fecundity of special calcareous soils (marne del Trasimeno) in an endemic microclimate characterized by movement of large masses of air throughout all the seasons around the lake’s hills and plantations,  the ultimate production is an intense bright red fruit of the earth with  an incomparable delicate scent and celebrated flavour.

 1x Saffron box 0,25g = € 9

 1x Saffron box 1g = € 30

 1x Saffron box 5g = € 120

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Shipping costs are not included.

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To order our saffron, please kindly send an e-mail to info@lagiuiaia.com , we will answer you as soon as possible, thank you.

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Terms and Conditions

The saffron plantation

1) Sowing

In summer bulbs are planted into shallow furrows in saffron-dedicated plots of land apt to rotation and to avoid reducing nutritional soil elements. Thus also ensuring the best product quality.

2) Blooming

The flowers usually sprout  in late October. Wrapped in a thin white cuticle quickly opening into a bell-like violet cup. The process of gathering should begin in the early morning before the sunlight reaches the three delicate inner red pistils. A fragile plant texture and an asynchronous flowering require that each flower’s stigmas are hand-picked, thus prohibiting any kind of mechanization.

3) Extracting

Separating the red pistils (spice) requires patience and special accuracy is needed with unclosed corollas.

4) Drying

Pistils are dried on a fine knit sieve over oak embers or simply inside a thermostatic controlled electric oven.  The process takes 10-15 minutes at 40°- 50°C in order to rid any moisture present in the fibres of the spice.

5) Preservation

Saffron can then be finally stored in dark-coloured glass pots, away from light and moist air, awaiting packaging.

6) Packaging

The final step is the packaging of the spice, carried out directly by the Consortium, to ensure good preservation that will make the product keep more than 5 years in your cupboard.

– GUARANTEE CONSORTIUM QUALITY –

 Our farm, together with the Consortium’s 23 local producers, is quickly and strongly imposing our saffron production onto the national market.

Il Croco di Pietro Perugino Alberto Viganò”,  cooperating  with ASL’s ( Health Service) professional crew who have responsibility for packaging, together with  Perugia’s Agricultural University staff, ensures quality control at all levels.

The mark and seal of the Consortium over the screw top of the glass bottle  guarantees the genuineness and the quality of our product.

Presently the Consortium is endeavouring to enhance the perception of its members, at home and abroad, as fine producers of saffron and encourage the use of the pure spice instead of the industrial saffron powder, lacking the organoleptic  properties that bestow superior quality to our product.

– MORE ABOUT SAFFRON –

WHAT SAFFRON IS:

Saffron is the precious spice that comes from Crocus Sativus, a hermaphrodite monocotyledon plant member of Iridaceae.

Since its triple chromosome complement it cannot accomplish a normal meiosis forced into an agamic vegetative reproduction obtained through the multiplication of some internal undifferentiated buds. Some of them will generate the ovary and the three bright red pistils (the spice) at the end of gynaeceum up to the violet womb of the flower and dangling out from the cup like 3 tongues of fire.

WHY SAFFRON:

In Umbrian territory saffron is attested, in ancient manuscripts, as being grown since the XIII century, some dated 1279 and 1534 clearly describing Crocus plantations in the fields of Castel della Pieve (Citta’ della Pieve). Pure saffron with its intense flavour and particular aroma is very much the basic ingredient for the  preparation of special dishes. The bright golden sauce resulting from the infusion of the pure spice ennobles first courses as well as white meat, fish and even desserts  like puddings and cakes. Saffron stems the ageing effects of free radicals, enhancing  metabolism and digestive functions, reducing blood pressure and bad sterols. Completely fat free it’s a natural source of vitamin B1, B2  and carotenoids (crocina, crocetina, picrocrocina) some of which (safranale) is a consequence of the drying process.

It’s important to distinguish pure saffron, recognizable by triple headed red pistils,  whose properties have just been described, from industrial saffron powder. The  industrial process, usually combined with other substances (turmeric, marigold, poppy petals, pomegranate flowers, chemicals), is deprived of important organic matter.