Tasmanian Saffron: A golden idea that started 30 years ago

NICKY and Terry Noonan landed on a golden thread of an idea 30 years ago.

Flower power: Nicky Noonan of Tasmanian Saffron with husband Terry. Picture: Fiona Harding

2017 FARM MAGAZINE INNOVATIVE FARMER OF THE YEAR WINNER

TASMANIAN SAFFRON

Nicky, Terry and Patrick Noonan

GLAZIERS BAY, TAS

NICKY and Terry Noonan landed on a golden thread of an idea 30 years ago.

Terry took a quick trip to a deli to buy saffron threads, and paid $14.95 for a tiny 150mg bottle.

As he walked out of the shop with a lighter wallet, he hatched a plan to grow the flowering bulbs that produce the tiny red threads that cost a fortune.

The couple built their saffron operation from scratch and now grow one million crocus sativa flowers a year on half a hectare of their 22-hectare property at Glaziers Bay, near Hobart, in Tasmania.

As newcomers to the island who had moved from Sydney for a treechange, Terry and Nicky didn’t have an agricultural background or family to lean on when they set off on their crocus adventure in 1990.

Armed with a “wheelbarrow, spade and $1000 in capital”, the pair imported 5000 bulbs from the northern hemisphere, because they couldn’t find any growers in the southern hemisphere.

It took 2½ years for those 5000 bulbs to go through quarantine and become acclimatised before the Noonans had their first flower. That soft purple bloom, with its scarlet three-pronged stigma, was the start of a beautiful business.

Today, the Noonans produce about 4kg of saffron threads a year, nearly half of the total Australian harvest of 10kg. The Noonans’ son, Patrick, 22, is now heavily involved in the family business, which employs 10 pickers during peak season.

Last year, Tasmanian Saffron launched Growers’ Own Saffron Gin, which was well received by foodies at the 2017 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

This year about half of the Tasmanian Saffron crop will be exported to the Middle East, with the rest sold across Australia from the farm gate and through independent supermarkets and delis.

The Noonans’ determination, ingenuity, ability to invent and re-invent their business makes them worthy winners of the The Weekly Times Coles 2017 FARM Magazine Innovative Farmer of the Year Award.