But despite being new to farming, Jesse and Rachael Sherman wanted to "build a legacy" for their own children, and chose one of the most expensive spices in the world as an entry point to get into agriculture.

"We know [saffron] is very niche and we also keep learning new things about it too, like its increasing use for medicinal purposes," Jesse said.

The couple had considered other options like garlic, orchids, olives and even thought about running sheep, but found that they needed to optimise their 20-acre property and saffron was the best option.

"A lot of growers within Australia will grow less than two hectares worth of the crop, so we knew that with our 20 acres, we could grow a sufficient amount and have enough room to rotate it and not overwork the property and still keep a true agricultural use of this land."

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The Shermans believe there is huge potential in the spice due to a huge consumer base in Australia, which currently only produce roughly 10 kilograms of it a year, with local retailers selling the product for $50-80 a gram.

Even though Iran imports about 3500 kilograms of saffron and sells at a fraction of that price, Rachael believes there is very good reason the Australian industry can grow and compete.

"It just represented a huge opportunity for us," Rachael said. "Australian saffron is also notoriously very good quality compared to the imports, which mostly come from Iran."

The couple said their first saffron trial grown at Mount Egerton showed rich colour, and produced a very good yield.

The trial's final aim is to get their crop graded, which is also "looking good", according to Rachael.

The Shermans planted 500 corms over the 2021/22 new year, which then flowered in mid-April 2022, with an expectation of 200 of those corms being big enough to flower within the first year.

However, the couple ended up with about 500 flowers and out of that yielded a little over 2.5 grams of saffron, which Rachael said was a great result, despite high rainfalls lately.

"We also had a reasonably good success rate with the daughter corms that we pulled out of the ground ... and got about 900 corms out of the ground from that 500 that we put in and only about 200 of those are ready to reproduce," Rachael said.

"The wet weather meant the ground got too soggy and the crops don't like to be too wet, but with a season which was less than ideal, we believe we had a viable outcome on the whole."

Rachael said the coming long-term forecast for dry weather would hopefully produce great results second time around.

"We did quite a lot of research into what conditions saffron likes, like the freezing cold winters where you get a little bit of frost and a little bit of snow," she said

"Then during those dry summers, it needs to bake, so the climate [at Mount Egerton] was really suitable."

Jesse said the handful of other local saffron growers in the country had been supportive and that "while many of them are apart, it is very close knit".

The couple credits Argyle Australian Saffron in Orange, NSW and fellow Victorian saffron producer Gamilla at Beechworth for giving vital support and direction in starting their own farm.

"Just through things like our social media, we have had a lot of people talk to us about this too," Jesse said.

"We would like local restaurants and chefs to use our locally produced saffron, and hopefully can contribute to amazing meals made here eventually,"

The couple also plan to not only grow but supply saffron to stores on their own too, which Jesse said would round out the legacy that they are trying to achieve.

"Rachael was 18 when I met her and I was 20 ... and from the the start our dream was this, and we're almost there," he said.

"We know there's still a lot of hard work once we establish ourselves a bit more firmly and get a grasp on the industry but this has been the dream from the onset - starting our own farm, and being as self sufficient as possible."

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