{"id":311,"date":"2025-10-20T16:10:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stagingen.saffrona.eu\/?p=311"},"modified":"2026-10-11T12:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T12:21:06","slug":"saffron-innovation-calabash-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/saffron-innovation-calabash-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Calabash Gardens: When Saffron Becomes an Experiment in Regenerative Farming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the quiet hills of Vermont, far from traditional saffron lands, a small farm is proving that innovation and passion can turn even snow-covered soil into fields of red gold. Claudel \u201cZaka\u201d Chery and Jette Mandl-Abramson, founders of <strong>Calabash Gardens<\/strong>, began their journey in 2018 with a dream to merge art, ecology, and agriculture \u2014 and saffron became their perfect medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Originally from Haiti, Zaka brings a deep respect for farming heritage and storytelling, while Mandl-Abramson, an herbalist and small-scale grower, brings practical knowledge and a vision for sustainability. Inspired by research from the University of Vermont, they planted 2,000 saffron corms as an experiment \u2014 which soon grew into a thriving operation of 120,000 plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their approach goes beyond cultivation. Every stage of production follows <strong>regenerative agriculture principles<\/strong> \u2014 from carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement to soil restoration. During Vermont\u2019s long winters, saffron rests under snow, preparing for a short but intense bloom in October and November. Each flower yields three delicate red stigmas, hand-harvested and cured to create one of the world\u2019s most valuable spices.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"840\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona.jpg\" alt=\"Saffron crocus flowers\" class=\"wp-image-138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona.jpg 840w, https:\/\/saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/safran-flower-saffrona-10x7.jpg 10w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond the fields, Calabash Gardens offers \u201c<strong>Calabash Experiences<\/strong>,\u201d immersive farm-to-table events where art, culture, and saffron cuisine meet. Their products \u2014 from saffron-infused honey to herbal tinctures \u2014 embody the couple\u2019s philosophy of <em>radical love and hospitality<\/em>: to share, to include, and to connect people through the beauty of the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In doing so, they have not only cultivated saffron but also built a model of community-based innovation that reimagines what farming can mean in the modern world \u2014 where tradition and experimentation grow side by side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\ud83d\udd17 <strong>Read the original article on VNews:<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/vnews.com\/2025\/01\/11\/newbury-saffron-farm-sustains-vision-of-experimentation-58784737\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newbury saffron farm sustains vision of experimentation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the quiet hills of Vermont, far from traditional saffron lands, a small farm is proving that innovation and passion can turn even snow-covered soil&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[29,32,30,33,34,31],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saffron-innovation","tag-calabash-gardens","tag-regenerative-agriculture","tag-saffron-farming","tag-saffron-industry","tag-saffrona","tag-vermont-saffron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3735,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/3735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saffrona.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}