It"s harvest time for saffron, the precious seasoning that"s mostly grown in Iran, but used in cuisines around the world. Saffron is derived from the saffron crocus, an autumn-flowering plant with purple petals as richly hued as the vivid crimson stigmas (called "threads") in the center of the bloom. These threads are carefully extracted by hand with tweezers and dried before they"re used for cooking. Each flower comes with just three threads, and it takes a lot of them—roughly 75,000 crocuses will yield just one pound of saffron. The entire harvest can last only about a week or two, because that"s the short life of the saffron crocus bloom.
Saffron in bloom
Today in History
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Happy 300th, NOLA!
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Black History Month
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Native American Heritage Month
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Oh, happy day!
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A path into history
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Moving as one
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National Mountain Climbing Day
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The Unfinished Obelisk near Aswan, Egypt
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Life in a North African town
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Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
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The Canary Islands, Spain
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Dark Sky Week
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World Oceans Day
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Après-ski in the Dolomites
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Corjuem Fort in Goa, India
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The smoke before the bonfire
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Great Backyard Bird Count
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Elephant Rock, Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia
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Who left the tub running?
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Bidding summer adieu
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30 years after Exxon Valdez
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50 years of World Heritage Sites
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Can you see the family resemblance?
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Happy birthday, Saguaro National Park
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Autumn in the Prosecco Hills
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Astronomy Day
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Let s ride! It s Roller Coaster Day
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Bridge to infinity
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Teacher Appreciation Day
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It s National Hispanic Heritage Month