BOOK REVIEW
SECRETS OF SAFFRON
- THE VAGABOND LIFE
OF THE WORLD’S MOST
SEDUCTIVE SPICE
By Pat Willard
Beacon Press, Boston, 2001
Reviewed by
M. Saleem Seyal, MD, FACC, FACP
Spend the day merrily, O Priest
Put unguent and saffron oil together to thy
nostrils
And garlands and lotus flowers to your be-
loved’s body
- Ancient Egyptian Banquet Song
O
n a recent trip, I picked up this delightful slender book
with an intriguing title in one of the many used book
stores in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. Pat Wil-
lard, an acclaimed food writer and the author of this compellingly
readable book, is in love with the beguiling, exotic foreign spice,
Saffron, that has bewitched humans since antiquity. Describing
her excitement regarding her own painstakingly hand-nurtured,
home-grown saffron garden in Brooklyn, New York, she writes,
“One morning, the (crocus) blossoms began to unfurl. I gave a
yelp, and ran for an old plant saucer, and then I began to pick….”
The quest for spices including cinnamon, ginger, mace and many
others have lured and compelled adventurers and invaders of all
sorts over several millennia. Most of these spices have now be-
come ubiquitous in contemporary kitchens. Saffron still remains a
tantalizing, mysterious and exotic spice that is quite expensive and
sometimes even scarce, particularly the un-adulterated, pure ver-
14
LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
sion. Modern horticulture rules are not applicable to its cultivation
since the plant called “saffron crocus”- Crocus Sativus- has to be
grown under specific weather conditions and bears only four fragile
purple blossoms/flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas or
styles called threads, which have to be carefully and painstakingly
plucked manually within a brief window of time. The dried threads
are used as a seasoning, food-coloring, as an ingredient of soothing
beverages, and for medicine.
The book opens with an introduction titled as “The Heart of the
Matter” and relates a Greek Mythology story of Crocus, a mortal
human prince, and Smilax, an immortal nymph who entices him.
Crocus is smitten by her, but Smilax eventually got wary of him due
to his undue adoration and transformed him into a small purple
flower with a fiery heart. The origins of crocus sativus- the Saffron
plant... “in an ill-tempered girl and her bothersome sweetheart” must
have made a certain sense, considering where it grows naturally. The
Saffron plant nourishes and thrives in the Mediterranean, soaking
up the summer sun. Usually in October, “the saffron crocus unfurls
in a burst of sudden purple radiance… A cry lets out, the bells ring,
and workers rush into the fields shuffling up and down and across
the rows of blossoms, gathering as many as they can before the
midday sun wilts the crocus’s petals and melts its sated heart.” All
plants bloom within a one to two-week period and approximately 150