In the spring of 2022, Marilyn was reading an article in Eating Well magazine that was describing the efforts of the University of Vermont, through their Saffron Research and Development program, to encourage the cultivation of saffron farming in the United States. To learn that saffron is derived from a beautiful lavender purple crocus flower was a moment of both remembrance and epiphany for her, as she simultaneously recalled spring crocuses popping up, sometimes even through the snow, in her grandmother's front yard and envisioned her own tract of raw land outside of Charleston, SC. This was property she had owned for 11 years and was being used to grow timber and for hunting. At the time, the thought formulated that this was something she might be able to do on that land, but not now as she cared for her husband who was declining from Parkinson’s disease with dementia. The Eating Well article sported photos of beautiful plots of the blooming flowers, and it provided all the resources that it seemed one would need to get started. But again, not for now. So she filed the magazine at the bottom of the stack on her coffee table.
Marilyn’s husband, Grady, died in May of 2023. He had grown up in the northern part of South Carolina, in a small town surrounded by farms, where everyone had large gardens and where school was interrupted in the fall when everyone from the community, children included, were enlisted to pick the cotton fields. He knew he didn’t want to be a farmer and became a doctor instead, but those small town roots and farming ways go deep in a person, and we know that what is now Show Me Saffron would have brought him much joy.
Marilyn grew up in the area of the country where Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri come together but landed in the Charleston area after doing her residency in Radiology at the University of South Carolina. Her younger brother, Terry, and his family, stayed in the area of their youth. They and their families have remained close through the years, and there was a lot of travel back and forth for visits. At the end of June, 2024, Marilyn was attending a family wedding there and planning to stay through the week of July 4th. A dear aunt and uncle had been unable to attend the wedding from western Oklahoma due to a medical recovery. So after the wedding on Saturday, Terry and Marilyn decided to make the 4.5 hr trip to visit them, staying overnignt and returning to southwest Missouri the following day. It was a pleasant road trip and visit with conversation, laughter, fireworks, and a diner breakfast. On the return trip, they fell into a companionable silence, the date July 1, 2024. With ripening wheat on one side of the two lane highway following the Kansas and Oklahoma state line and corn and/or soybeans on the other side, all of a sudden that idea of saffron farming came up from Marilyn’s belly, not from her head, as something she could now embark upon with her land in SC. She turned to Terry and said, “You know, sometimes I can have wild haired ideas, but God has just reminded me of the idea I had a few years ago to grow saffron on my land.” He was interested but had no working knowledge of saffron, its production or its uses. So he got a little lesson, and in his mind, he, too, could envision those spring crocuses of their grandmother’s, to which he asked, “Wouldn’t they grow better here (in Missouri)?” Marilyn laughed, “Perhaps so, but I have land in SC!” With just a beat of pregnant space, Terry replied, “Isn’t this something we could do together?” And in that moment, Marilyn describes the Holy Spirit just lighting up the interior of the truck with possibility, life, vision, and beauty.
Terry was about to turn 65 in a few months and was contemplating retirement life approaching. Marilyn had retired in 2019. Terry’s wife, Eydie, was also homegrown, having been raised on 40 acres nearby. She had a lifelong desire to return to country life and have a few chickens. When they returned from the trip, Eydie and their adult daughter, Angel, were visiting in the living room of their house, and when Terry and Marilyn spoke of this new saffron farming idea, everyone was shockingly all in immediately, and it seemed to take on a God-driven life of its own!
Marilyn went home and ordered each of them some corms to “pilot test” our ability to grow these flowers. Terry and Eydie divided theirs, and a friendly competition ensued. Marilyn grew hers in pots on her balcony; Eydie grew hers in a raised bed in their outside garden; and Terry started a hydroponic experiment in his basement.
Marilyn returned to surprise celebrate Terry’s birthday over Labor Day weekend, and all they could talk about was saffron. They began to look at property in the area, with Eydie already having scouted out some listings. The search was on for something like 2-5 acres with at least one outbuilding for storage. Nothing seemed right, and Marilyn went back home to SC somewhat disappointed. However, Terry and Eydie continued to look at properties; the vision was becoming more and more real with each passing weekend! The last Saturday morning in September they called Marilyn to chat about how nothing seemed to be what we needed or wanted to pay. During that conversation, Marilyn reminded them that she had land in SC, to which they responded, “About that… we’ve been thinking… maybe we’ll move there.” Wow, that was a shift! But they also had two properties there in Missouri that they were looking at that day. As soon as the conversation ended, Marilyn hurriedly ordered more corms to plant on her land as another test. Later that afternoon, however, they called back and said, “We’ve found the perfect place!” And so it became. Closed and finalized on November 1, 2024 (thank you, God); the same day Marilyn won the test competition with the first saffron bloom in her pots. 😊
Rain came (thank you, God), and with the help of good friends who shared their tractor (thank you, God), plowing of the field ensued shortly thereafter in early November, with anticipation of needing to clear out rocks; however, very few rocks were tilled up (thank you, God). Soil testing revealed the perfect ph (thank you, God), and no soil additions were needed (thank you, God). Snow covered, protected, and nourished the field through the winter (thank you, God). A sort of gestation of the land.
“Show Me” is the state motto of Missouri, and after discovering that we were the first saffron growers in the state, Show Me Saffron was born with formation of the Show Me Saffron, LLC, in early January, 2025. In February, Terry and Marilyn decided to “start small” and ordered 25,500 jumbo crocus sativus corms from Roco Saffron in the Netherlands, a source vetted through the University of Vermont (thank you, God). The field was cared for with spring plowing, summer tilling, placement of hardware cloth barriers around the field to deter moles, and high-pitched mole deterrants, and on August 4, 2025, the boxes of crocus sativus corms arrived as promised. There was celebration; there was music; and there was prayer!
The plan was to plant over Labor Day weekend and into the following week; we had no idea how long it would take. However, we had moved from planning to plant them all by hand ourselves and decided to purchase a garlic bulb planter. That arrived from Poland in late July, shortly before the corms (thank you, God). Field, corms, planter, and the borrowed tractor; God had really moved on our behalf, and we were ready to plant.
The field was tilled one last time, and it was a dusty mess. The weather had been dry for some time, but after the tilling was complete, Terry, Eydie, and their son and daughter-in-law tested the planter and worked out a few kinks by planting a few boxes of the corms, and afterward light rain came, dampening down the dust (thank you God). Then right before Labor Day weekend, 2025, a friend from Charleston joined Marilyn in coming to plant, and with the help of the planter, six people (5 family members plus the friend from Charleston) wearing special order Show Me Saffron First Planting T-shirts got 25,500 corms into the ground in record time, about 9 hours (thank you, God). Two days later, Terry and Eydie’s granddaughter, Ava, arrived with several college friends, and they, also wearing the Show Me Saffron T-shirts, laid ground cover where walking aisles had been left in the planting (thank you, God). As soon as the last bit of cover was laid, a gentle rain began to fall (thank you, God). It was a surreal and glorious feeling, experienced by everyone involved.
One of the outbuildings which came with the farm is what one might call a man cave, but it has been deigned the Show Me Saffron Research Center. Terry still has aspirations of scaling up a hydroponic component to the business, and so he spent the weeks waiting on the harvest by painting and organizing the interior of this space. This is where the stigma separating, dehydrator drying, and storing of the saffron will take place. It is, however, also where much emphasis on a quality sound system and strict temperature controls can be found. 😉
Marilyn made flight reservations for October 14, 2025, and October 28, 2025, in anticipation of the harvest, trying to visit and help but also meet commitments she had in Charleston. Very sadly and unexpectedly, the dear aunt who Terry and Marilyn had visited in 2024 passed away on October 6th. The visitation and memorial service were set for October 17th and 18th, and although the saffron corms were disappointingly slow in sprouting, it was God’s providence (once again) that all of the Missouri family was free to attend this important and special time in western Oklahoma without harvest concerns (thank you, God).
One week later, on October 27, 2025, the first flower blooms were discovered, almost a year to the date of the first test bloom. What a day of rejoicing that was! Thank you, God! Marilyn arrived, as planned, on October 28th to cold and rain, however, and the plants waited, but on Thursday, October 30th, the sun came out, the temperature rose a few degrees, and the flowers began to awaken. Let the harvest begin! To be continued….