A very modern spice merchant From a farmers market stall to a global business

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Midleton, in County Cork in Ireland, is not the kind of place where you would expect to find the headquarters of a growing global spice merchant. The farmers market in nearby Cork is where Arun Kapil and his wife Olive first started selling spices. Since then the company Green Saffron has grown steadily, drawing on Arun’s love of spices and family connections in India. It is still selling at farmers markets. But it is also shipping containers of carefully sourced spices to a European hub in Holland. And Arun told me that he has not compromised on quality along the way.

Notes

1. As promised, a link to the Green Saffron website.
2. Here’s the transcript.
3. Arun referred to “the very unfortunate cumin incident”. I knew nothing about that, and am investigating. Later: see Digging into contaminated cumin
4. A few other episodes from Ireland:
   • Eating Alone
   • A sweet sour story
   • A cheese place
   • An experiment in sound and taste
5. Banner photograph of cumin seeds by Ajay Suresh on flickr. Black cardamom by Kurman Communications on flickr.

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