Sussex Saffron Ltd

Organic nasturtiums enjoying the dry heat!

A bridal theme for today’s organic edible flowers - dianthus and rosa prosperity

Purple pea flowers on our organic purple podded mangetout. A great way of adding nitrogen to our saffron beds when the crocuses are dormant.

The orchids have enjoyed the sunshine! No herbicide and no mow have taken us from one single orchid to having them springing up all over the place!

Amazing Aurora Borealis visible in Sussex!

Happy St. George’s Day from the inside of a warm Cornish saffron bun!

A guest in my boot this morning!

Wild garlic in snowy flower

Wild hedgerows: Blackthorn in flower, delicately scented like almonds.

Organic wild garlic with mushrooms for breakfast this morning.

Osmanthus blossom - tiny flowers with a heady scent. Lovely for a warm flower infusion on a chilly day or in desserts.

Woodland organic wild garlic

Crab Apple blossom, ready for a Springtime herbal infusion.

Lion’s mane mushrooms, lightly toasted and finished with a rapeseed oil infused with saffron and garlic!

Happy St. David’s Day!

These raspberries don’t seem to know it’s December! It was an unseasonably warm 10 degrees last night…

This bright rose picked in yesterday’s fabulous November sunshine is doing its best to cheer up the grey of today!

Perfect colours for an autumn salad - dark red orach, dahlias and tagetes that have the most aromatic smell.

What a change in a week! Last Monday, it was 23 degrees while out picking saffron at 11 am - this Monday, the temperature had only just struggled up to 3 degrees by 9 am…

Poor man’s capers - nasturtium seed pods, another autumn treat!

We have an amazing bed of nasturtiums. We have been supplying peppery leaves and flowers for seasonal salads and the seed pods for pickling!

The most evil of saffron predators - the humble slug!
They don’t actually eat the saffron itself, but they like the petals and often destroy the stigmas by accident during their hungry rampage!

We used not to have much problem with slugs as our fields are usually full of pheasant, rooks and other birds. However, this year, we have noticed a decline in all our avian visitors. Usually, we have a week of visiting seagulls eating the leatherjackets - this year, we have had none. There is an ancient rookery near us, but our rook population has halved at least. Are these the effects of avian flu?
Fortunately, our owls and our pair of buzzards are doing fine.

The first saffron flower of the season - 3 weeks earlier than usual?
Normally our first crocus flowers around 19 October - last year, we were surprised to see one on 4 October. It is rather a shock to see them out in September…

Painted morning

An adventurous salad today garnished with saffron jelly and fennel foam! Not for the faint-hearted!

A recipe to brighten a grey summer - Peaches poached in liqueur with saffron cream!

Beautiful summer beans with companion planting of tagetes.

Saffronaise eggs!
Our version of Eggs Benedict with a saffron mayonnaise

Microreds! Red orach glowing in the early summer sun.
Orach used to be widely grown all over Europe, but at some point spinach took over as the leaf of choice. Orach has a lot to recommend it - vitamins C & K, potassium, calcium, beta-carotenes and anthocyanins - and it makes a very pretty salad!

Handsome Devil

This chap likes to sunbathe by the saffron beds and then snooze in the shade behind the beehives.

Chickpea and wild garlic flatbread for coeliac awareness week 2023 - super simple and low GI.


150g chickpea flour
300g water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon chopped wild garlic

Leave the flour and water mixture to soak for at least 30 minutes (we leave it for a few hours to make sure all the water is well absorbed.)
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Grease an oven dish, pour in the mixture and bake for 20 minutes.