For one week each year, gorgeous purple flowers bloom in only a few places around the world. People wade into the purple seas to harvest the blooms by hand and then pick their stamens to sell as saffron.
The harvest process is tedious, but these high-maintenance flowers are also very selective about the climates that they grow in and the yields are very hit or miss. Each flower - or saffron crocus - produces about three stamens, which must be picked by hand. About 150 flowers are needed to produce a gram of saffron and saffron can sell for between $2,000 to $10,000 a pound.
Additional reporting by the European Pressphoto Agency.
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