I’m going to be rich!
While out and about at a few garden centers this past week, I found corms for Autumn Flowering Crocus, Crocus sativas.
Crocus sativas is none other than the source for saffron, the world’s most expense seasoning.
I bought a package of 15 corms to plant this fall which should be in bloom next fall and then I can begin the harvest and call my bank to get ready for my big deposit.
The saffron is actually the stigmas of the flowers. Each flower has three stigmas so I should be able to harvest 45 stigmas, assuming one bloom per corm. This means my first year’s yield will be approximately .003 ounces, since there are about 13,125 stigmas in an ounce. At $50 per ounce, my first year’s income will be…
Fifteen cents. One dime, one nickel.
Maybe I won’t call my bank just yet. The corms cost me $6.99, so I have a while to go before I make an actual profit. But according to the instructions on the package, these flower year after year and naturalize, so in no time at all…
I’m at least going to have a nice patch of fall crocuses to enjoy each year, which may in the end be of greater value than the stigmas they produce.
“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844
These beauties are in bloom in my neighborhood. I've never grown them. Hope yours multiply so you can add to your bank account…or flavor your food.
You lucky dog. I need some of those. I will have to get out and look for some today. It will take you a year or two to show a profit or like some just have enough to flavor a meal.
Good luck with the get rich quick scheme… 😉
At least you'll have some nice flowers while you wait!
Haven't grown these yet but count me in for the big bucks! You are rich where it counts so, not to worry.
Don't quit your day job:)
They may not make you rich, but those fall blooms will surely make you happy.
It has rained here, too, but not as much as we need. Here's hoping more showers come along this week.
your happy mood bank will overflowth, they are so pretty, nevermind if the 'real' bank takes quite some time to do the same!
Great find………..hold on to your day job for just a while longer!
Well…gotta start somewhere! The crocus will be a nice addition to the autumn landscape.
I'm very impressed by your mathematical skills. They will get more beautiful year after year even if you don't get richer year by year.
These are my favorite autumn Crocus because they bloom with the foliage. I used to grow them, until the slug and sowbugs completely buzzed them down. (It was all that damp leaf litter that did it.) While you might not get rich with the Crocuses, you might have enough with which to cook. Saffron risotto is absolutely fabulous.
Thank you for the reminder that I need to go get my fall blooming bulbs in the ground for next fall…and more spring blooming bulbs in the ground.
Surely it is more than $50 an ounce. When I bought some I only got just a few stigmas for several dollars.
Fresh is still better than storebought.
I got a bunch of those last year and am hoping that they've multiplied! I experimented and placed some in pots which oddly did not have adequate drainage or something because they rotted away to husks.
Some others I think were eaten by moles despite have planted a lot of rocks around the bulbs in hopes that would discourage them.
Other than that, fresh saffron is pretty awesome! Great recipe:
Tomato sauce, generous pinch of saffron, lots of garlic, and dry bread food processed/blenderized, heated and served over pasta, SO GOOD.
Saffron at least could give you a slight chance for legitimate riches in a few decades – at first glance your headline made me think you'd had your Twitter account hacked and that you had succumbed to the "get rich quick" Spam ;-]
Annie at the Transplantable Rose