At $100 per gram, to say saffron is a delicacy would be an understatement.
Saffron is known for giving dishes like Spanish paella their rich flavor and golden hue and has long been a prized spice for the upper class.
Fake saffron is flooding the market; its low price is made possible by dyeing horsetail hairs and disguising them as saffron, even to the point of synthetic taste.
Most saffron is imported from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, primarily Iran and Iraq. Only a handful of saffron plantations are established in the United States, the largest of which is in the High Desert’s backyard.
She’s Rooted Home in Phelan is the largest saffron farm in the country, though the growing plot looks more like a large side yard than the largest red spice center in the United States.
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Husband and wife Tara and Chad Philipp, residents of Apple Valley and Hesperia, are the faces behind the bulbs. Started in the business by chance and heartbreak, they recently packed and shipped 11,000 boxes of saffron bulbs, which look a lot like garlic bulbs, in just six days this season.
Their young business is thriving in the High Desert, and products like saffron bulbs, fresh saffron and growing kits are packaged and shipped directly from their garage, with the support of the community of neighbors and the occasional stray dog.
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The couple bought their Phelan ranch 11 years ago. The small house was affordable and, like the property’s many fruit trees, the couple grew to love it.
Plans to leave the High Desert and start a thriving green farm quickly dissolved after their second child was in a dirt bike accident in 2021. He was hit by another rider, suffered a broken jaw, had his heart resuscitated and was flown to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for surgery.
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Chad quit his trucking company in a heartbeat, wanting to spend more time with the kids instead of 12 grueling hours a day on the road, his back glued to the leather seat of his truck in a symbiotic union of sweat and mileage.
The Philipps had three human mouths to feed and about 15 hungry cattle to tend. Unsure of their next move, they discovered saffron one summer evening while camping with the family who had hit their son in a dirt bike accident.
The two families shared a seafood paella under the moon in the High Desert, a first for the Philipps, and their new business idea was born after the first bite of smoked rice.
They first planted 60,000 bulbs and crossed their fingers that it would work.
“I put the start-up cost on a credit card and started hoping and praying,” Chad told the Daily Press.
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Tara already had a following on her farm’s Instagram account, and to her surprise, she discovered that an impressive number of followers were interested in learning how to grow the world’s most expensive spice.
“It’s easier than most people think. If you live in agricultural zones 4 through 10, saffron can be planted and harvested. It can even grow under snow.”
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Chad’s crossed fingers seem to have brought prosperity and a more comfortable life to their four homeschooled children.
The Philipps watered the soil only once when they first planted it and haven’t watered it for 2.5 years. The rare rains in the High Desert have been enough for the bulbs to double to about 420,000 bulbs underground.
Each bulb produces one to four flowers. The red stigma of the lilac flower is the most profitable, and each flower usually produces three of these expensive stigmas, which will soon turn into spices.
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The spice is expensive because it is produced entirely by hand, Tara said.
No saffron farm can be maintained commercially: each flower is planted, harvested and processed by hand.
She’s Rooted Home only produces super Negin grade saffron, the reddest part of the stigma. This drives up the price, but the product is superior in quality compared to other farms that sell the entire stigma, including the yellow and white parts.
According to Tara’s calculations, it takes 324 flowers to produce 1 gram of Super Negin saffron, compared to 150 flowers if you use the entire stigma. Additionally, an average person at Phelan Farm picks 1,680 flowers per hour, and it takes an hour to separate 420 flowers and their stigmas.
There is only one other saffron farm in California that the Philipps know of, but their High Desert farm is the largest in the United States, according to Margaret Skinner of the University of Vermont, the leading university in saffron research.
The Philipps can only sell online because they don’t have time between homeschooling, raising a baby, caring for countless farm animals and maintaining the farm to sell at farmers markets in the High Desert.
Their best-selling products are a half-gram of fresh saffron for $55 and a bunch of bulbs for $35. Over the years, they have sold about 200 grams.
Benefits and recipes of the most expensive spice in the world
Research supporting the medicinal use of saffron indicates that it may help with ADHD and dementia, is beneficial for vision and mood, and is packed with antioxidants.
Tara recommends looking into Dr. Daniel Amen’s study for more in-depth information. For over 20 years, Amen and his researchers studied the effects of saffron and concluded that it had properties strikingly similar to those of the antidepressant Prozac.
As for recipes, Tara offers an e-book of the 25 Best Saffron Recipes available on her website for $10. Dishes include:
- Paella
- Milk and saffron cake
- Caramels
- Rice cake
- Teas
- Ice
- Rice pudding with raisins and pistachios
- Saint Lucia Rolls
McKenna Mobley is a reporter for the Daily Press and can be reached atmmobley@gannett.com.
