The story
Azafrán del Oasis is a project founded by Raúl, member of the fourth generation of a family with roots in a small village at the Granada High Plains, Orce.
In an attempt to preserve the agriculture production that his family was carrying out for centuries in its land., Raúl researched in the traditions of this land and the history of the region looking for a crop that would allow to transmit the values that all his family members inherited generation after generation: effort, dedication and patience.
In this regard, he found saffron as the best approach. A spice highly valued worldwide, for its flavor and scent as well as for its laborious harvest
History of the crop
Since prehistory to our present days, this spice (also known as Red Gold), has been grown and used by most of civilizations: Egyptians used it to embalm prominent people, Romans used it as an aphrodisiac, Greeks perfumed their chambers with it.
Although, it was not until the VIII century, with the muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus), when saffron was first introduced in Spain. Since this moment, slowly saffron was consolidated as a traditional crop, in which each generation knew how to transmit the know-how and wisdom to allow their people to have a delicate product, of high quality and unique in the world.
However, despite the rise that saffron experienced in the decades of the 70s and 80s, nowadays the cultivation has strongly declined in all regions of Spain.
Thus, Azafrán del Oasis is a project that seeks to recover the tradition of an extraordinary crop in order to get closer to our history and honor our past.
Azafran del Oasis and Al-Andalus
Our project is closely related to the Arab world, specifically with Al-Andalus and the Nasrid dynasty.
Besides cultivating a spice that was introduced during the Andalusian era in our country, we are geographically located in one of the areas of greatest influence of the Arab legacy, Granada.
This is the reason why, from the beginning, we wanted to create a project that would allow us to generate a new form of economic development for the area of Granada High Plain, at the same time as we enhance and increase the level of quality of the legacy left by the Arabs in our country, their Culture, traditions and knowledge.
