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Sunward Farms

Our model

Grow it like a product, not a harvest.

Field saffron is a gamble on one fortnight of weather and labour. We treat each lot as a manufactured product: scheduled inputs, recorded process, measured output.

Principles

  • Scheduled, not seasonal

    Harvest windows are planned months ahead, so allocation agreements can state delivery months rather than "after harvest".

  • Measured, not described

    Every claim on a certificate maps to an ISO 3632 measurement with a method, an instrument and a date.

  • Traceable to the room

    A lot number resolves to rooms, cycles, batches and drying profiles. Nothing is blended across cycles.

  • Replicable by design

    The room is the unit. A new hub is more rooms running the same profiles, validated the same way — in Portugal or elsewhere.

The path of a lot

Six stages, in order. The last two are where we differ most from field production.

  1. 1

    Corms

    Certified disease-free corms are graded by size and rested in cold storage. We stagger wake-up dates so three cohorts flower at different times.

  2. 2

    Flowering

    Rooms run at the temperature and humidity profile that triggers flowering. Benches are walked every morning; flowers are picked within hours of opening.

  3. 3

    Separation

    Stigmas are separated by hand on the day of picking. Style (the pale base) is trimmed to the standard the lot is contracted at.

  4. 4

    Drying

    Each batch dries on a recorded profile. The profile — not the operator — is what we qualify, which is why results repeat across batches.

  5. 5

    Resting

    Dried threads rest in sealed containers for a minimum period before testing, because colouring strength keeps developing after drying.

  6. 6

    Grading & release

    Per-batch measurement in-house, lot-level confirmation by an accredited laboratory, then release with the grading file and a sealed retention sample.

What the grading file contains

The file is the product as much as the threads are. It travels with every carton.

Colouring strength
ISO 3632-2 spectrophotometric measurement at 440 nm (E1% 1 cm), per batch and lot mean.
Moisture and volatile matter
Per batch, measured after resting.
Floral waste and foreign matter
Per lot, with the trimming standard the lot was contracted at.
Independent confirmation
Lot split tested by an ISO 17025-accredited laboratory; both results in the file.
Traceability identifiers
Rooms, cycles, batches and drying profiles behind the lot.
Retention sample
Sealed, argon-flushed, kept for two years and available for re-testing.

Want the grading file for the current lot?

Send us your specification and we will reply with the file and a sample plan.

Request a sample