Harvesting Asparagus.... It just seems so WRONG! [View all]

(YAY Asparagus!!!
I started to write a new post celebrating the harvesting of our first Asparagus this week,
but went back and looked at this one, and....hey, it works. The photos look just the same.
The Asparagus is about 3 weeks later than last year, but just as tasty,
and what could be easier? It pops up every year, very little maintenance, no pest problems here so far, and melt in your mouth tender delicious.
Tonight, we are having it with Grilled Fresh Salmon. Great taste companions.)



The first edible that pops up out of the ground on our place announcing the advent of SPRING is Asparagus!

"HI!! I Bring Good News! Its SPRING!! Winter is OVER!!! "

...and the first thing we do this this early Bringer of the Good News is cut it off at the ground.
(and steam it, and eat it with moans of delight)
It just seems SO wrong.

Everything else in our Garden, upon showing signs of life after the dark of Winter is nurtured,
cared for with tenderness, fertilized, weeded, and visited daily with loving appreciation.
Days, sometimes weeks will pass in agonized anticipation of a Tomato or a Strawberry reaching that perfect ripeness before it is harvested...

...but NOT Asparagus.
As soon as it pops UP, Off With Its Head!

(The thin ones are seedlings from last year's seeds that dropped in the bed.
The thicker ones should have been cut yesterday.
The shorter brown stubs are the stalks from last year's standing crop that were cut off last Fall.)

If immediate decapitation is not bad enough,
it can get even more brutal.

Hey. Lets cover up the babies so they can't get any light!!!




Light Deprivation produces White Asparagus
that is even more tender.



YUM!
We love this stuff so much that we added another variety, and two more beds this year.



Asparagus is one of the very few Perennial vegetables.
A well maintained bed will produce for many years.
Our original bed is 4 years old, and producing beyond our expectations.
It has been trouble free, with no pests, diseases, or any special needs.
(There is an Asparagus Beetle, but we haven't seen one here yet.)

After harvesting (4 - 6 weeks in a mature bed),
the stalks are left standing for the rest of the Summer,
and cut off at ground level when they turn brown in the Fall.
Asparagus Beds are self-weeding for the most part because the plants grow so tall & thick that weeds don't really have a chance. After the Spring Harvest, we just give it a little water if we don't get any rain, and just watch it grow.



This is a beautiful plant, very lacy and ethereal.
It grows very tall, over 6', so I suggest locating it along the fence.

Asparagus has been the most trouble free/ low maintenance crop we have grown here,
and the taste and tenderness of fresh cut Asparagus is better than anything that can be bought in a market,
or ordered in a high end restaurant.

We prefer our lightly steamed with a little butter.