The Blink-And-Miss Saffron Season In Kashmir

I knew that the saffron flower is mauve. I also knew that the top-grade 'mogra' saffron threads are the red stigma, exactly three to a flower. I knew other crunchy facts, like it takes 150 flowers for a single gram of saffron. But the important things I didn't know. I didn't know that after coming back from the fields with your airy load of mauve, when you sit around chatting with the women picking out the stigma from the flowers, the tip of each forefinger and thumb takes on the same hue that you saw earlier on the towering chinars that surround the saffron fields, a flaming orange-gold. Fall is the season of saffron harvest in Kashmir valley, a brief window after the summer rains have greened the valley and before the snow paints it white. I didn't know that during this harvest season, all alms given are saffron, and all alms-seekers show up directly at the fields. And how much you give is a greater indicator of wealth than the number of acres you stand on.