Home Salt, spices and aromatic herbs Saffron from La Mancha: this has been its 2020 harvest

Saffron from La Mancha: this has been its 2020 harvest

One more harvest of the precious one has already finished saffron from La Mancha, a spice that has its own Protected Designation of Origin. This year the production of the 126 hectares that the DO has amounted to 451,5 kilograms, a figure much lower than last season. At the beginning of this campaign, the initial estimates were to maintain productivity and thus maintain the average of the previous years, but it has not been possible. In this way, the decrease has been of a 25% Over the previous year. We give you more details below.

The decrease in this production points to meteorological causes which has led to very irregular numbers in the various Castilian-La Mancha areas. These have been the frost of the month of March and mainly the high temperatures from the month of September. As for the cultivation extension, it is very similar to that of other occasions.

saffron from La Mancha
Saffron collection / Photo: doazafrandelamanchalcom

Excellent quality

In this way, the Regulatory Council of the Denomination of Origin of La Mancha values ​​as "improvable" production this year. However, they are very satisfied with the quality achieved throughout the campaign. In addition, they highly value the effort made by all the producers and transformation centers in a very complex year due to all the problems and incidents related to the current pandemic of the COVID-19.

“We are ending 2020, a year that we can describe as bittersweet. Sour is the flavor that leaves us that the forecasts have not been fulfilled and that the harvest has been less to what we estimated. But at the same time with the satisfaction of having saved a campaign with a production of exceptional quality, well above what is required by the specifications of the PDO. This was very complicated due to the health situation that we live in all of Spain due to the coronavirus ”, explains the president of the Regulatory Council, Carlos Fernández.

DO La Mancha saffron
Pot with saffron from the DO / Photo: doazafrandelamancha

The president of the DO adds that next year promotion and training actions will be carried out, such as the course "Get to know the Saffron from La Mancha" or workshops aimed at students of Cuisine and Hospitality.

Obtaining saffron from La Mancha

In the last weeks of October and first of November, the saffron flowers. Later these are debrize or peel, that is, the stigmas of the flowers are extracted from them one by one and manually.

Later these stigmas pass to the stage of toasted, an extremely process delicate And that also always marks a lot the quality of the product. A good job of toasting will result in a spice with excellent aroma, coloring power and an optimal humidity level.

Finally, it should be remembered that PDO Saffron from La Mancha It is the only spice of this nature that has this quality recognition at the national level in Spain. If you want to give that touch of flavor and color to your dishes, we encourage you to look for it in your usual supermarket.

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