Norfolk Saffron proprietor set to relaunch seventeenth century book dedicated to the product

A seventeenth century book dedicated to saffron is about to be relaunched this year by the proprietor of a north Norfolk business devoted to the same product.

Dr Sally Francis, founder of Norfolk Saffron based at Burnham Norton, learned about the book called Crocologia, a few years ago – but it was written in Latin.

It was originally published in 1671 and was written by a German physician and author Johann Ferdinand Hertodt von Todtenfeld.

Sally has been working in collaboration with a co-author to translate the work, which she expects will be published in the autumn.

She said: "For the last five years I’ve been working on this very absorbing collaborative project that has now come to fruition. I learned of the book completely dedicated to saffron some time ago. It sounded fantastic, but it was written in Latin and also extremely rare.

"However, my co-author Dr Maria Ramandi, and I recently completed our translation, and the book has now been formally accepted for publication.

"Amongst Crocologia’s secrets are fascinating uses for the saffron petals as well as the usual threads. The publisher (Brill, Leiden) is planning for it to be ready this autumn."

Sally has adapted her business due to the coronavirus outbreak and is now operating as a mail-order only business, abiding by all the government’s instructions.

She said: "I am of course still busy with work on the smallholding to grow the next season’s harvest. I expect everyone will know that it’s been hard to get hold of raw ingredients and because of that, I have introduced a limit on the number of bags of Saffron Flour that can be placed in each order."

Norfolk Saffron is the UK’s leading saffron growers, producing extra strong saffron consistently annually rated ISO 3632 category I, the best international grade.

It supplies professional chefs, bakers, independent shops and delis as well as Ayurvedic medicine practitioners, skincare products formulators and expert craftspeople.

It also has the UK's only pop-up museum dedicated solely to saffron. For more details visit the website: www.norfolksaffron.co.uk