Saffron: a shaggy dog story

Photo by Benyamin Bohlouli on Unsplash

Saffron is a precious substance,
but easy to obtain.
Buy some crocus bulbs. Plant them. Watch them grow. Harvest the saffron.
Now your menu is replete with exotic esculents.

But the cost of harvest —
how severe it is!
Its cost is measured in tedium:
For you must comb pollen from each individual flower
with a bee’s leg
held by…