Kashmiri Saffron

Saffron is the dried stigma and part of the style of the saffron crocus, which is botanically called Crocus sativus, which are harvested, dried, and used for cooking. Saffron has a pleasant spicy smell, and it contains a dye that colors food a distinctive deep golden colour. Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius, is often used as a less expensive substitute for saffron, as is turmeric, Curcuma longa, which mimics saffron's color well but has a unique flavour.

Attributed Medicinal Properties- It has been recognized of value as an antispasmodic, diaphoretic, carminative, emmenagogic and sedative.

Plant Description and Cultivation- A fall-flowering ornamental crocus that does well in warm climates. It grows to 15 cm (6 in) with long thin leaves. The blue-violet flowers contain the precious protruding orange stigmas.


Other Names - Alicante Saffron, Autumn Crocus, Crocus, Gatinais Saffron, Hay Saffron Karcom, Stima Croci, Zaffer.
French : safran
German : safron
Italian : zafferano
Spanish : azafran
Indian : kesa, kesram, khesa, zafran

Walnuts

Walnuts from Kashmir are very popular all over the world. Based on the thickness of their shells they are further classified as "Burzil," "Kagzi" and "Wont"; corresponding to "Paper-shelled." Walnut Kernels are used in confectionery, as dessert and for extraction of oil.

Cooks & chefs from many parts of the world have eagerly adopted walnuts and incorporated them into a multitude of dishes from soups to desserts and even dessert cordials.

While, we are most familiar with fully mature walnuts, green walnuts, completely edible but quite sour, are an ideal ingredient for pickles, jams and marmalades. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many English cookbooks touted an abundance of recipes for pickling both black and green walnuts.

From ancient times through the nineteenth century herbalists prescribed the walnut, the bark, the roots, and the leaves as an astringent, a laxative, a purgative to induce vomiting, a styptic to stop bleeding, a vermifuge to expel worms or parasites, and a hepatic to tone the liver. The walnut served to induce sweating, cure diarrhea, soothe sore gums and skin diseases, cure herpes, and relieve inflamed tonsils.

Even the walnut oil was employed as a medicinal aid. It was first diluted before it was used to treat colic, dandruff, dry hair, gangrene and open wounds, while the green rind of the walnut was used to treat ringworm.