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Marc BOXBERGER

L'Ortu e a Manera

Saffron - Cap Corse Onions - jam

Visits : To buy Cap Corse onions: August onwards.
Saffron is harvested in October and November (it can be bought all year round).
Present on the summer Markets of Sisco and Erbalonga

Regions : Nebbiu - Capi Corsu

Categories : Around orchards and vegetable gardens

Agricultural sectors : Corsican fruit and vegetables

More than just a flower with a gentle and subtle odour, much more than a spice that provides our culinary dishes with a beautiful shade of yellow, far more than just a medicinal plant… saffron has been the most precious natural produce in the world from time immemorial.

It’s this marvellous, rare, precious saffron that attracted Stéphanie Scavino and Marc Boxberger… But a saffron plantation in Cap Corse? That’s never been seen before in living memory! The idea was daring… but not improbable!  The proof?  La Safranière du Cap is a wonderful farm in the small village of Sisco. It’s a magical place, where colours change constantly. "The saffron flower is both magnificent and surprising", explains Stéphanie Scavino. "You can never tell how many flowers will have blossomed during the night. Thirty? Or a thousand? We always look forward to finding out early each morning!”

The process of saffron growing is completely natural; the flowers are hand-picked very carefully. Saffron’s power, spicy flavour and colour, is dependent on the success of an essential process: drying. "The flowers are harvested by hand, then they are cut, with great care being taken not to remove the three dark red filaments of the stamen”. Did you know that 200 flowers are needed to produce 1 gram of saffron?

Almost as enticing as the crocus sativus and also produced from a bulb, the Cap Corse sweet onion is Stéphanie and Marc’s other produce. Wonderfully sweet, this onion is used by the greatest chefs in Corsica… With its delicate taste, it has already conquered the most sophisticated palettes!

"In 2019, la Safranière du Cap became L'Ortu e a Manera, to give pride of place to our GARDENS and all that they contain : saffron,vegetables; fruit trees, and more.

"Let's set our gardens back on track and make them once again the lifeblood of our villages" !!