Cook's Gold

Real saffron can be worth more per ounce than gold, but this thistle-like yellow flower, safflower, a.k.a. "bastard saffron", used in the Canary Islands instead is much cheaper and more abundant. Locals still call this azafran (saffron) and it still has to be picked by hand (and it prickles, nastily), then dried, which means a lot of backbreaking, manual work goes into producing a very small quantity.

See where this picture was taken. [?]