Just forty miles away from The Gables is a town is named after the Saffron plant which was grown, in abundance, there from the 1500’s.  Not only was Saffron a valuable crop in that part of Essex but it was also widely grown in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.  We are close to the Cambridgeshire border (St Neots is in Cambridgeshire and is the town where I shop) and so a recent visitor brought us a thoughtful gift of a book and fifty saffron bulbs which she hopes will thrive here.  We have just planted them, today, in a raised bed and when the rain stops Jeremy will cover them with some rich topsoil.