Saffron: a shaggy dog story
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 your fingers with tweezers or —
if your fingers are small —
between your fingers themselves;
or between your teeth.
To acquire a bee’s leg —
or perhaps two, in case the one is damaged in use or preparation —
you must first capture a bee,
and then dismember it.
You may decapitate it as a first step,
in a gesture of mercy;
but then you must carefully remove its hind legs,
mindful not to crush the delicate hairs
that will comb the pollen.
Then you must let the legs dry
for a few days.
But do not give them too much direct…
