Saffron pickers aren't finished their jobs when they've plucked several hundred thousand flowers out of the ground. And that's how many they must pick if they're to see any reward at all for their efforts. The sacks of flowers are taken home, or to labourers who toil through the night, stripping away the insides of the flowers. Nothing is wasted. The petals are eaten as a vegetable.
All life revolves around saffron during the harvest.
The flowers become currency for those few short days. Beggars roam the fields with small plastic bags, offering a blessing to pickers who give them a handful of flowers. Fruit sellers also move through the fields, selling bananas and apples in exchange for petals. The mood is jolly - you never see any quibbling at all over the size of the clumps of flowers offered in payment. No matter how busy the picking gets, there's always time for prayer.