Asparagus From Our Own Patch

Woohoo! 3 years ago we planted 70 asparagus crowns along the back fence. This year it is finally well established enough to pick! This was our first small batch, check out the size of two of those spears!

I tossed them in a little olive oil, sprinkled with salt and roasted them. We had them the other night with calf liver and onions.

I had never picked my own before and Paul showed me how to make sure there's no woodiness in the end. Just hold one end gently in each hand and slowly bend the spear until it breaks naturally. It finds its own break point just above the woody end.

I nearly missed the first picking, since I was away, and the freeze this week snapped the new spears, but more are coming up. We should get to pick for a few more weeks before we need to let them alone to grow and store food for next year. In our climate, spears come up and the fronds stay green all through the summer until the first freeze, packing away nutrients into their root system for the coming year.

With hardly any care, and a little luck, and the Good Lord willing, this patch of perennial vegetables should provide food for our table for many years to come. How cool is that?