A small family farm 25 minutes outside of downtown Olympia is aiming to become one of the first saffron producers in Western Washington.
Emily Strand of Aurum Hill Farm finished planting her first 20,000 corms of crocus, the flower saffron comes from, in late August.
Those bulbs will bloom into purple flowers later this fall.
Strand will need to harvest the flowers by hand, early in the morning before they wilt, and carry them up to the house she shares with her husband and two young children to be processed.
“You kind of have to dissect them to pull out the little red threads that are the saffron, so it's really tedious work,” Strand said.
If she’s lucky, her first year’s crop will yield up to a couple pounds of saffron.
She hopes to sell the saffron threads online, and eventually to sell the corms themselves for aspiring saffron growers in the area.
“I’m just excited to see where this goes,” Strand said. “I have no idea, but it could be a big thing.”
Growing saffron was far from Strand’s mind when she and her husband purchased their 42.5-acre property about five years ago.
The couple initially planned to turn the property into a wedding venue, but the cost of that endeavor has so far kept it out of reach.
An employee in the state Office of the Code Reviser at the time, Strand began brainstorming other ways to use the property.
“It just kind of started this bug in my head about, like, I really have to figure out a way to grow things here to utilize the land, because you don’t really find farms like this anymore so close to town,” Strand said.
She eventually left her day-job and started breeding babydoll sheep. The farm also became home to two highland cows and several other farm animals, in addition to an expansive personal garden.
Strand was still thinking of other ways to use her land when she began researching natural ways to help manage her mental health.
Saffron kept coming up in those search results as a natural antidepressant used throughout history for its health benefits, including helping treat anxiety, improving sleep quality and improving memory.
“Saffron is amazing, and I think in the U.S., people don't really understand it in a health aspect. It's more of a culinary additive to a dish,” Strand said.
Wanting to see if saffron could help her manage her anxiety and depression, Strand decided to try growing it herself.
“It's kind of a massive experiment to see how that helps me,” Strand said. “And if I can help other people, how cool would that be?”
Her experiment ended up fitting perfectly into her family’s schedule, as saffron harvest happens outside of lambing season, when she is busy with the sheep, and wildfire season, when her husband is out working as a wildland firefighter.
Saffron, also called “red gold” for its color and its price, coincidentally matched with the farm’s name, “Aurum,” meaning “gold.”
“The property gets this beautiful golden tone in the summer with the sun setting. It's just gorgeous. So that's how we named our farm,” Strand said.
Learning from other saffron farmers in the Pacific Northwest, Strand set up three greenhouses on her property for her first growing season, with plans to expand to six if things go well this year.
“I'm just so excited,” Strand said. “I feel like in the next five years, you're just gonna hear more and more about saffron.”
As saffron use continues to grow in the wellness industry, Strand hopes to collaborate with other local businesses in the coming years on products that utilize saffron.
Strand is posting updates on this year’s saffron crop, and the daily operations of Aurum Hill Farm, on Facebook and Instagram @aurumhillfarm.
