Saffron, often dubbed the 'red gold,' holds the title of the world's most expensive spice. Its hefty price tag is justified ...

Tucked in a valley beneath the snow-capped Himalayas of the Indian Kashmir region is the town of Pampore, famed for its farms ...

There is new interest in growing saffron among small farmers in search of a cash crop, and among cooks and gardeners seeking ...

Nestled in a picturesque valley beneath the snow-capped Himalayas lies Pampore, a town in the Kashmir region, celebrated as ...

And it can take 40 hours of hard manual labor to produce just 1 kilogram of high-quality saffron. Growing the plants isn't exactly easy either. David Smale: They're actually called corms ...

As well as a spectacular location, Pampore is India's centre for saffron - a spice so valuable that it is sometimes called red gold. Derived from the crocus plant, saffron fetches around $1,500 ...

Italian farmer Alessandro Mazzuoli might only produce just 1,000g of his star crop a year, but the revenue it brings in makes ...

Bulb-like corms, at top, produce saffron crocuses. Each purple flower contains three red stigmas, which are dried and cured to make saffron.Credit...Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times ...

separate — saffron is dehydrated or dry stigma. The stigma is the female part of flower. You have to separate that stigma, dry that. And for all of these procedures, you need hand works ...