KROKOS, Greece — Every autumn, Zisis Kyrou is more often found plucking flowers in northern Greece's purple saffron fields than in his office as a civil engineer.

Saffron — the spice so expensive it's called "red gold" — has brought jobs and money to a region better known for coal mines and unemployment. A year ago, its producers began exporting to the United States. Now they're looking to China.

Most are young Greeks who were shut out of the job market during Greece's nine-year economic downturn. They returned to the countryside to make a living off the land.

"It was hard to find work in your field during the crisis, particularly in civil engineering, because there was no construction," said Kyrou, 34, as he harvested with pollen-stained hands.

In 2012, he returned to Greece from London with two university degrees. He eventually opened an engineering office in his village of Krokos, but most of his income comes from his four acres of land, which he hopes to increase.

"I didn't imagine I'd return," he said. "But it was a decision I don't regret."