Red Gold

When we looked at Ellesmere back in February one of the attractive aspects of the house was its saffron garden.

Nicole Negrello proudly showed us the half-dozen raised beds, about a metre wide by 20 metres long, on the southern side of the property.

The beds were bare except for a few weeds and some tufts of grass.

"I have left you an explanatory chart in the barn," she said.

"It will tell you what to do next autumn."

Now, almost nine months later, we are seeing the magic that is happening along the sides and tops of these beds.

The previously dry, cracked clay soil has softened with the onset of autumnal showers.

The browned surface of summer has turned into a green carpet of weeds and grass.

With a strimmer I blasted this unwanted growth off the saffron beds, in anticipation of the little lilac flowers that would herald the arrival of our crop.

 A week ago, still nothing, and I started to worry that maybe this wasn't going to happen.

Then, a few days ago, they started to appear.

First came one or two, then more. They came up randomly, pushing up their little mauve stems no more than a couple of centimeters high.

They opened into flowers, with soft violet petals tenderly enfolding the red gold inside.

We were on.

According to the literature, there is only a short window of opportunity to pluck the red stigmas.

So far, we have harvested about fifty flowers and Cliona has dried the stigmas in the oven... a high temperature for a short time

There are many more to come, I hope.

It is a thrilling time ... in the garden of Ellesmere.