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Malaga´s Botanical Gardens - La Concepción

Málaga´s Botanical Gardens in La Concepción are located 8km north of Málaga city. As you start climbing away from the coast heading towards Córdoba/Granada it´s possible to see a green and white-tiled dome roof of La Concepcion´s famous mirador glinting under the Mediterranean sunshine. Pond in Malaga´s Botanical Gardens The gardens and house were built in 1855 when two wealthy, local families united through the marriage of Amalia de Heredia Livermore and Jorge Enrique Loring Oyarzabal which meant the joining of several small estates into one larger estate. They created wonderful gardens around their house, buying and ordering plants and trees from around the world. Their love of plants was, unbeknownst to them, the beginning of Malaga´s Botanical Gardens as we know it today, It has become a gorgeous oasis of nature over the 23hectares that is now the visitable Botanical Gardens site. House in Malaga´s Botanical Gardens   Another wealthy family took over the gardens in 1911 and enl...
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Saffron Harvest

A little late this year my saffron harvest is minimal. Not only has summer gone on and on with little rain but my garden has been rotavated. I´d carefully dug up, or so I thought, the saffron crocus bulbs I had planted alongside my stepping stone path.

Expecting no harvest at all this year as the bulbs are still waiting to be replanted, imagine my surprise when up some popped one by one.

Saffron Crocus
Saffron Crocus - crocus sativus


The usual commercial way of harvesting the stamens is to pick the whole flower, then remove the stamen and throwing the flower away. I can´t do that, what a waste. I pick the stamens from the flower while still growing so I´ve got the saffron and can still enjoy the flowers, I ´ve obviously not many! Simple things!

One or two of the bulbs/corms even flowered in the tray I´d put them in without soil or watering them.

Once dry I put them in an empty glass spice jar. My favourite recipe for saffron, other than paella of course, is Lime and Saffron Chicken.



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