On the way back from Srinagar to Jammu, our driver Abdul stopped for a few minutes on the roadside and showed us these tilled fields. He asked us to guess what would be planted there. We blabbered some names of cereals or vegetables.
Abdul was not amused and said it would be SAFFRON. We were zapped as we had never seen Saffron fields. "Red Gold" as it is called, Kashmir is one of the largest producer of Saffron in the world. We were in Pampore town known as "Saffron Town" which produces 80% of Kashmir Saffron on Srinagar - Jammu highway. The Saffron of Kashmir is regarded as high quality and gets very good price. For people of Pampore and surrounding regions, it is a lifeline.
We could not see the flowers as they normally bloom in October in Autumn when these fields would be carpeted with lovely lavender flowers. Autumn is a excellent season to visit Kashmir and visiting these Saffron fields and seeing how they harvest it will be icing on the cake.
If you are driving on Srinagar - Jammu highway during the months of October - November, stopover at Pampore to enjoy these Saffron farms.
Postscript - The Pictures with flowers are downloaded from web.
If you want to read interesting vignettes captured on our Road trips, you may click here
Road Trip Vignettes
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