Crocus blooms in the living room? Kashmir's saffron farmers get creative.
Abdul Majeed Wani uses a flashlight to carefully inspect his blooming saffron crocus plants in red plastic baskets placed on iron racks. He’s deliberately deprived this small room of natural light, covering the windows to “maintain the quality” of the crop.
Mr. Wani is among the first farmers in Kashmir to embrace this relatively new technique of growing saffron indoors, stacked in vertical columns. “It is the third year I am growing saffron inside my house, and the results are very promising,” he says with excitement. “We have got better produce both in quality and quantity.”
Mr. Wani comes from a traditional saffron-growing family from Shaar-i-Shalli, a hamlet located on the foothills of Zabarwan mountains. Most of the people in
