No part of the purple flower is wasted The crocus flower is a lovely shade of pastel purple, but its real value is found within the petals. Every flower has at its heart three red stigmas, the female part, two stamens that perform the male role, and a long white stem connecting all of this to the main flower. 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.