One of the most valuable spices in the culinary world is extracted from the saffron rose. The most exquisite stews are seasoned with their stigmas, giving them color, flavor and aroma. The cultivation, collection and processing of saffron involves arduous work that is carried out in a completely artisanal manner in the Manchuela Conquense region. The municipalities of Campillo de Altobuey and Motilla del Palancar have the essential characteristics for this type of cultivation. The first step in growing saffron is to plant the bulb in previously acclimatized soil. Every 3 or 4 years, these fields are cleaned and the onion is harvested. At the same time, the strongest bulbs are selected, thus ensuring that the next harvest of the saffron rose comes out in optimal conditions. To know if the collected onion can be replanted, you must clean it well, check the color and remove the outer layers. At the same time, the onion is checked to see if it is rotten and if it has diseases such as warts or mold. The bulb has a nipple through which the rose will emerge if the onion reaches the appropriate size. As soon as the rose sprouts the nipple dies, but it grows again in the next harvest. If the bulb is too small it will only produce esparto. When planting saffron, it is necessary to do so in rows of one and keeping 10 centimeters of distance between each bulb. This is intended to protect the onion at harvest time, as it could be damaged by plucking adjacent flowers. The nipple, or stem of the onion, must be facing up because that is where the flower will sprout. The furrows where the onion is placed are covered with soil with the help of a plow or a hoe. Now we will have to wait several months until the saffron rose is harvested. The saffron rose that is an elegant thing, that before the sun rises already makes me get up. The saffron rose is picked very early when it is still in bud, as it blooms before the sun rises. In the morning it is better to catch it cocooned than later open. Then it opens and there is the esparto grass and it takes a long time to pick it up. The esparto that is this and of course already opens and then nothing spreads anymore. You have to use your hand, your fingers, to do it up and down, which is when you catch it best. That pile of earth is thrown over by the mole, which is a type of mouse that lives underneath but eats the onion and if they don't watch it and kill it, they destroy the onion and the saffron orchard is lost. Harvesting begins in mid-September. It is a completely artisanal process carried out by both men and women. In the past, people with fewer resources used to do it outside of the working day, who found in saffron a form of supplementary sustenance for their daily economy. Today it is mainly those who have experienced saffron cultivation since they were children who care about maintaining it, as is the case of Pedro Cañada de Campillo de Altobuey. We carry the tradition from my grandparents to my parents and from my parents to their children, to us, we will have been around for about 70 or 60 years or thereabouts, maybe a few more. It has to be picked early, early in the morning, because if it doesn't open and at a given moment it does open, you won't even get half of it, and if you have a piece of it you won't hit the nail on the head. Where you go for an hour, you go for three, and that's why you get up early to catch it. It is picked up by tapping it downwards and stretching it upwards, a little because if you just pick it up and push it downwards it becomes dust, it breaks. You have to give it a little push down and then stretch it up and then it comes out like nothing. The nipple breaks and then it comes out fine. Only the nipple of the rose comes out, but the stem, which is the stem, stays inside, stays below. The La Rosera family business from La Mancha is responsible for ensuring that the Campillo de Altobuey saffron fields continue the production of this precious spice. Once the saffron rose has been collected, all production is taken to Motilla, where the company has the peeling center. Peeling saffron is what the process is called by which the stigmas are separated from the pistils and petals. The peeling women fill plates with saffron sprigs to keep track of their wages. Peeling has a precise technique that cannot be overlooked, as Ángeles Ortega knows well. It is peeled, the tail is cut from the rose, then the right hand, the one that is not left-handed, takes out the saffron and puts it on a plate. Then they roast it and then, I don't know, they will export it abroad. The saffron flower is worthless when the stigma is removed, so all the remains are thrown into the trash. This is thrown on the ground, it is no longer valid, it is thrown away. By removing the saffron, the rose is no longer worth anything. The fact that the flowers spoiled so quickly accelerated the entire process, so the peelers had to finish the job before harvesting the next day. The work schedule depends on the quantity of flower, the number of peelers and how much each one wants to earn. Peeling, well it depends if there is enough for the whole day we spend quite a few hours. We don't have a schedule. There are those who come for many hours, there are those of us who come less, that depends, some days there are more, other days there are less. After that we have to move on to roasting it, roasting it is done on heating elements at around 110 degrees Celsius and without, very carefully, lest we overdo it and notice the saffron... Then comes the packaging Well , first you have to clean it a little bit if there was anything, but well, not much. And then you have to package it. Packaging is done by hand, with precision scales, since we sell in grams, one container is two grams, others are 5, that is, very small. And then the stickers are also manual and the process has ended there. Although the value of saffron has decreased in recent years, the market continues to maintain a price that may be high for some buyers. Let me tell you that all our saffron is of denomination of origin because what we mainly want to do is for people to distinguish what is a saffron from La Mancha and what is a saffron from abroad. In Campillo de Altobuey and Motilla del Palancar they put all their enthusiasm from the moment of extraction of the onion to packaging, thus ensuring that the saffron from Manchuela Conquense crosses the borders thanks to its high quality. I am Eugenio Monesma, director and producer of the documentary you just watched. 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