Saffron Blooms

The short time saffron is in bloom really makes harvesting the spice a joy rather than a chore. My babies bloomed for only about a week a few weeks back and I got nearly half a gram for later use. Since it's often sold by the gram that's pretty good.

I was talking with some friends recently about my harvest and how much I got from it. They were surprised to find out that it's still so expensive to purchase. After telling them about the work that goes into producing so little they understood a little better. Until recently it was about as expensive a gold. Now it's running around 1/4 the price of gold, still nothing to sneeze about. The middle looks like it's made of gold but I don't think a jeweler would fall for it. What else can you pull out of your garden that's that valuable?  If people knew how expensive it was there would probably be more saffron growers around and of course the price would start to go down. I'm happy just providing enough for what we use which usually isn't much.

It's almost a shame to harvest them since the flowers are so pretty. The vibrant purple color of the flowers really pops in the garden. You can easily see them when they're in bloom as soon as you pull up to the house.

They didn't flower last spring but we'll see if they flower this spring. Still not sure what prompts them to flower.