asparagus

[FarmerJamie]

Our soil here is heavy clay. I've amended it with grass clippings, mulch, compost, chicken poo, and peat moss. I have it in a 4'x'8'x8" raised bed. This is the third year for the crowns, so I'm looking forward to it - last year wasn't too bad, except my chickens loved to eat off the tips.

We eat it drizzled with oil and a little salt and broiled in the oven.

 

[Bimpnottin]

We also love to coat long stems in olive oil, salt and pepper and grill until crisp tender.

My 2-year-old ate as many as she could. The 4-year-old only wants hot dogs and peanut butter right now, so veggies aren't her thing. "I'll eat them, but I don't like them!"

I'm still digging through the posts on here, but anyone pickle their asparagus? The neighbor and my Dad each gave me plastic grocery bagful on the same day. I never thought it was possible to get sick of asparagus, but we're getting there.

 

[freemotion]

You can pickle anything! You can also blanch it and freeze it.

This thread inspired me and when I spotted crowns at the farmstand when I went to pay for my weaner pigs, I grabbed up a bunch....fifty cents each! I thought I got 10, but there were four more little ones hiding amongst those crowns. I planted them all and so far 12 have come up. I hope to be sick of asparagus, too, in a few years! Then I'll sell or barter it for something I need, after freezing enough for us. It is so nice to have more and more of my garden space devoted to perennials....so much less work in the spring.

 

[sunsaver]

I've been growing asparagus for years and i love it. To get decent harvests on a regular basis, you need about fourty plants. They never sprout all at once, so you'll get one here and over there. I have a hundred foot row of asparagus plants that are spaced 1 foot apart. i planted them just below the soil level, but i add composted chicken doo and mulch every spring, which i making them a little deeper every year.The purple asparagus is the biggest ive ever seen. The ferns get up to 9ft tall and spears are up to one and a half inch across. Jersey Giant or Supreme are two other good varieties. Don't waste time with Mary Washington. They seldom get very big.
I started with 8 asparagus plants back in 2002, but i quicky realised i was only going to get one spear per week. So i bought fifty, then fifty more. Now i can and do eat asparagus every day in the spring until i get sick of it, and let it fern out. Hard to imagine i could get sick of my favorite vegetable, but too much of a good thing....

 

[valmom]

We finally got asparagus put in! Yea! Someday we will be eating it. I got 60 crowns. Unfortunately, I have only seen 2 sprouting so far. :/ I hope they survive.