ASPARAGUS

HARVESTING ASPARAGUS feels to me more like the act of foraging, discovering an edible plant in the wild, than gardening. After all, asparagus are the springtime shoots of plants that live underground for years and years, and in some places grow completely wild. Each spring, the plant throws off tender green shoots in an attempt at propagation. When we show up at just the right time, it’s so easy to snip them off in a celebration of that magic moment when spring arrives at last. Asparagus have become such a ubiquitous commercial commodity—uniform spears trapped as they inevitably are in a wide rubber band, more often than not imported.

It’s a totally different experience to crouch down in an asparagus field looking for the earliest green stems that poke through the refuse of last year’s crop, just waiting to send their tender shoots to reach up toward the sun. Older plants produce thicker stems, but they are not necessarily better. No matter where you get your asparagus, always look for spears that are still moist, with no sign of drying where the stalks are cut.