Once upon a time there was an Aussie girl named Angela, and a Kiwi boy named Brendon, and their two little girls, Poppy and Saffron (yes, they love Saffron that much!!). With a lifelong ambition to get back to their country roots, and a passion for amazing produce, in 2016 they took a deep breath and packed up and moved from their lives, friends, family and corporate jobs in Sydney, to Orange in regional NSW. The climate in Orange is perfect for Saffron, which likes 4 distinct seasons to thrive.

 

After a lot of soil testing, and backbreaking ground preparation, care and love, they hand planted their first 2500 saffron corms which in 2018 yielded around 10 grams of saffron, which was much more than expected for a first season, and not only that, but premium quality saffron!! I know, it seems so little right?? But this is why saffron is a little pricey, every single step of the process to produce just 1 gram of saffron (from around 250 flowers) is done by hand!

 

By 2021, they had grown their crop to over 100,000 saffron corms, and are producing some of the best saffron in the world. Then, disaster. The NSW floods in March of 2021 hit and the Argyle lost over 80% of their corms. Brendon and Angela had to get on their hands and knees and quickly pull each one from the ground, one by one, check each one, and thrown most in the bin.. a heartbreaking exercise. So, not to be defeated they begun the exercise to import more corms from Europe in late 2021, a very complex and risky exercise, but with no other sources in Australia their only option. The 30,000 corms arrived, and they spent 8 weeks planting every single one into new ground. So, fast forward 2 years, the Argyles are hopeful coming into the 2024 harvest to be back at full scale producing some of the best saffron in the world to you all!!

 

In 2021, Argyle Australian Saffron won a Gold medal the Harvey Norman Delicious Awards for their saffron, an amazing achievement.

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Angela and Brendon use a special drying method, unique they believe to anyone in Australia which involves using humidity in their drying process. Studies have shown this quickly locks in maximum crocin content, and the result is maximum colour, flavour and aroma. This has resulted in overwhelming and consistent feedback that their saffron is especially potent, requiring only a fraction of what you would usually use in dishes. Pretty important right, when you are using such a premium product!

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