my poor math

Maybe it's my sloppy math. But in the saffron post I had my plot of 4 feet by 12.5 feet equalling 200 square feet. Not, obviously. Fifty square feet. So, divide 50 sq ft into the 43,560 sq ft in an acre and you see that it would take 871.2 of my saffron beds to equal an acre. Hence, if my little plot is worth $31.43 retail, an acre of my plots, all 871.2 earning at the same rate, would be worth--get this--$27,381.82.
But before I buy that chalet in Switzerland, a tiny detail: I think I put about 1.5 hours into my little harvest. 1.5 times 871.2 comes out to 1,306.8 hours. And those hours have to be concentrated in the space of about two weeks or 14 days. Ninety-three hours per day, rain or shine. Okay, get 10 persons willing to bend over for 14 9.3-hour days in a row for $10/hour.
You see where this goes. It is not capital that creates jobs (labor), much as the right wants you to believe. It is labor (jobs) that creates capital. The two, actually, have to cooperate.
Well, back to work. And a big thanks to two sharp readers who caught my wrong math.

saffron harvest calculated

Here's the saffron harvest this fall, dried and settled. Green in background is about one third of the saffron bed. The harvest was taken to a local lab and precisely weighed. Total harvest is 2.68019 grams. Average weight of one single thread is 1.78 milligrams. Stay with me. Saffron is retailed by the grain. There are 15.43 grains per gram. There are 28.3 grams per ounce. At my local grocery saffron retails at $2.29 for 3 grains, or $0.76 per grain. So my total harvest would retail for $31.43.

Let's say I want to make some real money and plant a whole acre in saffron. My saffron plot is 6 steps wide and 2 steps deep, or 4 feet by 12.5 feet, or 50 square feet. An acre equals 43,560 sq. ft., or 871.2 of my little plots equal an acre. So at one acre, my harvest would retail at $27,381.82. This is huge correction from first figure.

In that jar holding my harvest are approx. 1,500 threads or the harvest of 500 flowers. I'm not quitting my day job right away, although saffron is considered the most expensive spice in the store.

Saffron blooms

When it appears that the garden is done for the year, the saffron blooms. This flower here is part two of a complicated life of this member of the crocus family.

First thing in the spring they look like onions pushing up. When the garden is just beginning to produce, the saffron checks out and goes underground until winter is nearly here.

Each flower sports three red filaments. That's what you pluck and lay out to dry. And they become the most expensive spice in the world.