Taliouine Saffron

Crocus sativus flowers for about three weeks in late October and early November, each flower produces three red stigmas, and the flowers must be picked before the sun opens them and stripped by hand the same day - which is why saffron costs what it does, since it takes on the order of a hundred and fifty thousand flowers to make a kilogram of dried spice. Taliouine, on the southern flank of Jebel Siroua at around 1,800 metres, is where most of Morocco's crop is grown, on small terraced plots worked by families, and the region has a protected designation of origin. During the harvest the fields are full before dawn and the villages spend the day picking stigmas from petals on trays indoors. Cooperatives in the town sell directly and a saffron museum and a November festival explain the process. Buying loose red threads from a cooperative is the way to avoid the adulterated product sold in souks.

What you actually see

• A three-week flowering - the whole year's crop picked in late October and early November.
• Dawn picking - flowers taken before the sun opens them, stripped the same day.
• Terraced family plots - small holdings at 1,800 metres on the Siroua flanks.
• Cooperatives selling direct - the way round the adulterated souk product.

When to go

Late October to mid-November for the harvest and festival. A day.

Honest expectations

Saffron sold cheaply in souks is usually safflower or dyed threads - real saffron is expensive everywhere. Powdered saffron should be avoided entirely. The harvest window is short and shifts with the weather. Taliouine is a plain town with little else.

Nearby

Jebel Siroua rises north; Tazenakht and its carpets are east.