[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 11, Issue 18

[ranvaig at columbus.rr.com]

>Do they HAVE to be dug up each year? I usualy leave my bulb plants 
>in the ground. Is that a production issue or just how you deal with 
>bulbs?

They probably multiply more if you make sure they aren't clumped 
tightly together. I believe what I've read about growing them in 
cottage patches, doesn't talk about digging them up.  I haven't grown 
them myself.  It might also help control disease if you are growing 
whole fields of them.

>When you say "sorted and graded" what exactly do you mean?

I believe that's only for commercial growers.

>The the spice the whole or just the pollen of the top of the thread?

A saffron thread is the stamen of the flower, the orange part in the 
middle, not the pollen.

>Sorry, it's a new spice adventure for me.
>Soon I will venture into Curry hehehe.
>American garlic, salt and pepper be darned! I am on the verge of new worlds ;)

When I was growing up, even garlic was exotic.  Cinnamon on apples, 
and ginger and cloves for pumpkin pie were about all the spices my 
mom used.

Ranvaig