Saffron is worth more in weight than gold and is the most highly priced spice in the world.

To the chagrin of those that grow it commercially, it's butterscotch sweet smell, the flower and its corms attract some unlikely critters with expensive tastes.

One of which is a blue tongue lizard.

It's a phenomenon that Saffron grower, 74-year-old Norma Brien, who has a farm in central west New South Wales, knows all too well.

The Oberon-based farmer has picked over 4000 flowers this harvest, which begins at the end of March and runs through April, but not before a blue tongue lizard ate half of the saffron bulbs or corms from her shed.

"I had them on racks in the garage, and then it wasn't until I graded them all out from the net bags did I realise that a dear, sweet blue tongue lizard was eating the saffron bulbs because they're very sweet," she says.

While the lizard ate almost half of the valuable corms, she couldn't bring herself to do away with the lizard.

"We lost easy half but we couldn't kill him, we relocated him down behind the sheds," she says.

She says that this season's harvest has been quite fruitful so far, as the temperatures have been getting low enough at night to bring on a frost, which brings the flowers out to bloom overnight.

Norma Brien, who is also a cattle farmer, grows the saffron for Tasmanian producer Tas Saff, who sources the spice from over 50 growers around Australia.