InterviewsSARACENO SAFFRON: THE MAGIC OF AN INCREDIBLE INGREDIENT

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Saraceno saffron is a handpicked product full of history that takes its name from the place where it grows. The village of Segni…a fascinating and uncontaminated place…let’s start to give some visibility to small businessmen and to their products too. Flick on Food starts as a mobile product that wants to tell the story of the ingredients, their origins but also the story of the ones who believed in a new idea of business, turning their lives upside – down. Two entrepreneurs, Alessandro Malcosti and Eleonora Ciotti, their love and passion brought the magic of Saffron in the heart of Monti Lepini in Italy. The legend linked to the birth of this fantastic ingredient is magic and it seems like a tale…

…Once upon a time, there was Croco, a beautiful young mortal that was totally in love with Smilace, a very desirable nymph. The passionate love between the two of them was an impossible one, and it was destined to end. The gods on the Olympus, full of compassion, transformed Croco in a saffron plant (a flower with purple petals as the superb passion but with a yellow hearth as the sun) and Smilace in a Smilax (with heart shaped leaves and flexible but thorny branches, a symbol of a strong but exacerbated love) to make them live always one next to the other. The love, symbolized by the filaments of the plant, is linked to the ancient Greek tradition of placing a saffron flower on the graves of the ones that were dead because of love.

Let’s talk about you Alessandro and about your entrepreneurial choice…

Ho  I am 36, and I live in Segni with my companion Eleonora from 2012. My life is divided between my job in Fiumicino and my work in the fields. Mine is a very small but very active family run agricultural reality that started in 2013 and that also started the cultivation of saffron in the territory of Monti Lepini. The choice of starting this new adventure as an agricultural entrepreneur comes from my love for nature and also from the serenity that this gives me. I think that being a farmer is not a job, but an oasis of peace where you can escape from the daily city groove.

How was Saraceno Saffron born?

It was born from a series of coincidences that brought me to love this spice. Reading incredible stories about other people who started this beautiful experience before me, meeting wonderful people on the Navelli upland, where it is produced a high quality saffron…basically stories, info, passion all this made me produce my saffron.

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Why should we give more visibility and space to quality and refined products?

Saffron is a spice that gives if you give. There is the need of a physical relationship with the farmer, even because its processing is entirely handmade. I think there should be more space for everything that comes out of love and passion and I think that saffron is a niche product, so it deserves attention from the public and surely because of all the beneficial properties it has to offer too.

As an agricultural entrepreneur, what are your hopes and goals?

There are many hopes and these goes along with goals. As for everything, I think and I try to realize my goals step by step. For now, I am preparing the soil and I am starting to commercialize my saffron trying to make my company as much known as I can, putting all myself in it, trying not to disappoint anyone! The final goal is to create a regional movement to promote saffron from Lazio, that can involve other realities like mine through the affirmation of this product nationally, and yeah, internationally speaking too.

Perché hai scelto di inserire il tuo prodotto su Flick on food?

I immediately liked Flick on Food, I downloaded the app and I started to browse among all the products, finding out a lot of curiosities. The possibility of putting my Saraceno Saffron on Flick on Food is an important window for my business, because it allows me to promote my product and to make it appreciated by many for its quality and versatility, even to who doesn’t know or doesn’t appreciate all the ways it can be used and all the properties it has. The fact that it is all interactive and collaborative allows a virtual joint-venture between who produces and who consumes. That’s why I thank so much the creators of this project!

And we thank you Alessandro, for your fantastic product and for your daily dedication. If you want to know all the secrets about Saraceno Saffron and a recipe that you must try with trofie and octopus, download Flick on Food.

Michela Di Nuzzo

« Se scrivo ciò che sento è perché così facendo abbasso la febbre di sentire». - Fernando Pessoa Giornalista e co-founder, vivo il digital come imprenditrice e appassionata. Percepisco il cambiamento come un'opportunitá mai una minaccia. Occhi spalancati e orecchie aperte, sempre pronta alla condivisione, la chiave di ogni evoluzione.

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