We awoke to cloudy skies, but no rain yesterday.
From safe and warm beneath my covers, I could hear my garden calling my name.
While Hubbs did animal chores, I headed into the garden.
Despite the rain, rain, rain we have received, I still have a good crop of
lima beans...
kale and rainbow chard...
drying beans...
sweet potatoes...
sweet peppers...
and hot peppers.
( I spent a good part of yesterday dealing with hot peppers!)
Suddenly I was aware of a brightness to which I was unaccustomed.
What was that?
Oh, now I remember... that is the sun.
I had thought for certain it had forsaken us...
perhaps forever.
I reveled in the sights around me...
the way the light plays on the earth...
casting shadows here and there...
and how that golden hour makes everything so much more vivid!
It was beautiful.
And I was so thankful that I had left my bed to partake in the magic.
I spent a little time walking all over the farm...
looking at everything in the light of the rising sun.
I watched as my world came back to life...
the flowers stretching their happy faces high to catch the sun's rays.
The previous day's mail had brought a package of saffron crocus bulbs.
Where once had grown a dozen broccoli stalks,
I now planted 40+ crocus bulbs.
These will bloom later in the fall and I will harvest the red-orange stigmas (3)
from each blossom.
Once dried, these filaments are the precious saffron that is sold for
anywhere from $1000 to $5000 per pound.
My own personal harvest ( at most, 120 filaments)
will supply me with more than enough saffron for my own use.
50,000 to 75,000 plants are needed to produce a pound of saffron.
No wonder it is so expensive!
I have had good luck with saffron in the past... but lost my bulbs when we
Comments
Mary
Gives one time to bask in the beauty . . ,
Learn something new everyday . . .
Thanks for the crocus, saffron info