Carol Montpetit
When my daughter Kristen was in junior high, we traveled to Spain. Kristen was in her second year of Spanish. I hoped that a visit to Spain would encourage her to continue her language interest. In fact, Kristen grew up to become a Spanish teacher and translated my story into Spanish!
The area of Spain where saffron is grown is called La Mancha. This is one of the regions of Spain my daughter Kristen and I visited on our tour.
In late-October saffron is harvested and a festival celebrated. I began to draw and paint my vision of what this harvest would look like. The images in theis book are influenced by Vincent Van Gogh’s pastoral scenes. The text evolved naturally. Together, the art and the writing formed my book, Saffron Gatherers, Thread of Gold.