Saffron grown in Gippsland? Warragul Farmers’ Market stallholder Phyll Tierney has proven it’s possible, and really high quality!
Above: Phyll Tierney. Photo: William PJ Kulich.
First published in the 11 September 2015 edition of the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen.
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Phyll Tierney, saffron grown in Mirboo? It’s not something people expect.
No, it’s not, and it’s something I just thought I would try and five years down the track, yeah, it’s looking good.
Has this been a strong year?
Each year there is a bigger and bigger harvest and the strength of the product has always been the same since the first harvest – very strong.
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Restaurants in Melbourne are interested, yes?
Yeah, they’re saying it’s twice as strong as anything they’re importing, so we have one of the top restaurants considering buying Aus-tralian saffron – I’m pleased with that. It’s just great to think they’re willing to give an Aussie product a go.
It must be hard work.
The labour content is so enormous. There are no machines… able to pick and pull the strands out, so it’s all very hard labour.
It takes 230,000 of these flowers to yield a kilogram of saffron. A kilogram is equivalent to gold, per gram.
