The early morning autumn sunshine glimmers through a screen of gums, glistening on sheens of spiders’ webs beaded with dew.
Birds are calling and in nearby paddocks cows are grazing leisurely, steam rising off their backs.
But Ross and Ellen Higgins are already hard at work, staring intently at the neat rows of beds and then stooping to pick up a tiny treasure.
Moving steadily along, they pick small, purple crocus flowers with practised hands, delicately but deftly selecting the buds before they open in the sunshine.
This is how the saffron growers spend their mornings for six weeks, harvesting each precious flower for its three, tiny, red stigmas.
And they are tiny, but boy are they worth the effort.
Ross and Ellen moved out of Orange to near the tiny village of Millthorpe on the Central Tablelands in 2007, keen to try something new.
“We wanted to live out of town,” Ellen said. “We just wanted the space.”
Both already had careers, but they wanted to do something special with the two-hectare block.
The researched different enterprises, including garlic and nut trees.
“We just thought we would get a little bit of income from it,” Ross said.
But he had 10 saffron bulbs, which he planted in a garden bed with some tomatoes.
“I just had them as an experiment for a cold climate.”
They grew their own saffron for about five years, picking the delicate purple flowers and giving the highly sought-after spice to family and friends and using it in cooking.
“It was only when our daughter said to us, ‘do you know how much saffron is here?’, that we really considered it seriously,” Ross said.
In 2014 they harvested their first commercial crop, and it has grown since.
Today they have about 80,000 bulbs in 25 beds, which take up about the size of a football field.
It is intensive work, given the intricate nature of the job.
It takes 450 threads to make a gram of saffron, and 150,000 flowers for a kilogram.
Last year they harvested 57,000 flowers, collecting 350g of saffron.
Saffron can fetch between $1300 and $7500/kg.
It pays to be picky with rare saffron
For a spice that needs such intensive, intricate work to harvest and prepare, saffron strangely lives a very quiet life for the rest of the year.
Ross and Ellen spend a very busy six weeks picking the delicate purple crocus flowers, but for most of the year, the unique plants are best left to their own devices.
The crocus bulbs are planted by the end of January, with the first shoots and flowers appearing at the end of March or beginning of April.
And this is when the fun begins.
“As soon as you get your first cold snap, below about four degrees, they start to flower,” Ross said. “You’ve got to have the colder climate to get it to flower.”
The flowers need to be picked in the early morning, before they warm up and open, but on a cooler day, there might be a longer window for picking.
“You want to get them picked while they are still cold,” Ellen said. “One person can pick about 1000 flowers in one hour.”
And the most flowers they have ever picked in one day?
“We picked 10,000 one day,” they said.
And it can only be picked by hand.
The flowers are then taken inside, where they are gently opened and the three precious crimson stigma, or saffron threads, are removed. Separating 1000 flowers can take three hours.
They are then dried using a special method and stored in air-tight jars.
It is this intricate process which explains the price of the spice. “Saffron is more expensive because it is so labour intensive,” Ross said.
But once the flowers are picked, things become very quiet in the beds.
Once the plants die down, the beds are maintained, with blood and bone and dynamic lifter when needed. Wood chips, which are made from recycled pallets, are also spread. These help keep the flowers clean when rain splashes down on the bed.
Like all bulbs, the crocus bulb spreads, so every three years or so, they have to be dug up and separated.
“They are a very low maintenance plant, but very high maintenance at picking,” Ross said.
There’s a bloomin’ lot of flavour
Sweet hay. Honey. Flowers and earth.
The taste of saffron has been described as all these things, but one thing is for sure – it is a unique flavour.
And according to Ross and Ellen , it can go with a huge array of dishes, or even simply in a cup of tea.
They say it is delicious in paella and rice, as well as with fish, lamb and chicken.
But it can even go in muesli or in tea, on ice cream, in syrups, bread and scones, and desserts, such a panna cotta.
“Panna cotta is famous for saffron,” Ellen said. “Saffron goes with things that are mild tasting.
“With Moroccan lamb, it really lifts the dish. People might be tempted to leave things like saffron out, but it makes such a difference.”
Ross said it could go with such a range of food.
“We are trying to educate people to play with it,” he said.
Ross said he still can’t describe the flavour.
“Sweet hay doesn’t do it justice,” he said. “It has such a unique smell and flavour. The smell helps explain the flavour.”
Millthorpe Saffron is available at the Millthorpe and Orange farmers’ markets.
It is also used by chefs and restaurants, including at Boredell Vineyard, Greenhouse and Simply Nyle in Orange, and the Harvest Cafe and Store in Bathurst.
Threads are also available at the Beekeepers Inn, near Orange, and Millthorpe Providore, or can be purchased online through Farmhouse Direct.
Millthorpe Saffron also sells saffron bulbs.