back to search results
Less Info

With hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of crop at their fingertips, a family of saffron farmers pluck the delicate crimson stigmas from harvested crocus flowers high in the Kashmir Valley of India, home to the most valuable spice in the world (above). An estimated thirty thousand families around the saffron-surrounded town of Pampore depend on the annual fall harvest for their income, carefully drying the fragile threads in the shade, and selling them for about $3 per gram—or $1,200 per pound. Harvests have declined in recent years, due to a combination of factors, from increased climate volatility to local development around the fields. Government programs to help the farmers, including a processing center with vacuum dryers (right), online auctions, and even teaching them how to grow the plants indoors, have had some success, but most growers are vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather.

Filename
STNMTZ_20211101_18205.TIF
Copyright
©2021 George Steinmetz
Image Size
8192x5464 / 128.1MB
www.georgesteinmetz.com
Contained in galleries
With hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of crop at their fingertips, a family of saffron farmers pluck the delicate crimson stigmas from harvested crocus flowers high in the Kashmir Valley of India, home to the most valuable spice in the world (above). An estimated thirty thousand families around the saffron-surrounded town of Pampore depend on the annual fall harvest for their income, carefully drying the fragile threads in the shade, and selling them for about $3 per gram—or $1,200 per pound. Harvests have declined in recent years, due to a combination of factors, from increased climate volatility to local development around the fields. Government programs to help the farmers, including a processing center with vacuum dryers (right), online auctions, and even teaching them how to grow the plants indoors, have had some success, but most growers are vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather.

All images ©George Steinmetz. Please contact us for usage.