asparagus

[kimlove2]

OK. DH brought home some asparagus crowns for me to plant. problem is I have never planted it! also if and when it comes up how do you cook the stuff? I've only cooked frozen or canned, never fresh. Sometimes I think he may have a little too much confidenece in my abilities!

 

[hillfarm]

when all else fails, stick it in the dirt and see what happens.

you could probably google it and find out all you every wanted to know. I threw rhubarb in the dirt and still havent seen anything come from it. But it was a gimme from a friend and I was too busy to really learn up on it. But who knows, maybe it will grow.

 

[savingdogs]

OK. DH brought home some asparagus crowns for me to plant. problem is I have never planted it! also if and when it comes up how do you cook the stuff? I've only cooked frozen or canned, never fresh. Sometimes I think he may have a little too much confidenece in my abilities!

You have not LIVED until you have eaten fresh steamed asparagas with hollandaise sauce.....

Sorry, I don't know how to plant it....but I just had to say that.

Cooking it is easy though. Just clean it well and steam it! Yum.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Oooh, I do! Got to ditto the fresh asparagus, OMG yum. Mine is coming up well right now and I've had to restrain myself from nibbling it. (Waiting on it to get established)
2 ways, 1 for cold, wet, clay type soils. The other for decent dirt.

1. For clay, layer a little bit of compost, potting soil, etc on the ground where you want it. Put crowns there and cover with dirt. Water. Then as the sprouts come up, add more dirt & compost until you have a mound about 8" tall.
2. For good soil, dig a trench about 8" deep & put some good compost there. Then crowns & cover with soil. As the spears come up, cover with dirt until your trench has become level with the surrounding ground.

DON'T pick it the first year at the least. If you have really spindly spears (smaller than a pencil) the second year, wait one more year.
When the foliage dies back in the fall, cut it & remove it, then put a good layer of poop rich compost over the bed.

Once you get decent sized spears coming up, you can cut spears until they start getting small, less than pencil sized. Let the rest "feather" out to feed the roots. Really pretty foliage, actually.

Oh, and wrapped in bacon & grilled for a few minutes, sauted in butter & garlic, steamed & served with hollandaise sauce like SD said, yumyumyum, good stuff.

 

[kimlove2]

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!!!

 

[me&thegals]

Noobie describes it well. We put ours in a 12" trench, heaped in the middle, so that that crowns rest on top of the hump, with the roots dangling around on both sides. Then, cover with compost. Keep adding compost as it grows.

Asparagus likes a LOT of manure. And the bed will last for probably decades.

Simplest is best, IMO, for asparagus. I mainly stir-fry ours with olive oil and garlic until it is crisp-tender, then add salt and pepper. Most delicious! I also make it in a soup with chicken broth, lemon rind, some angel hair pasta and a few egg yolks beaten in. DH likes his steamed with a bit of butter on top. VERY adaptable and good in so many things.

Just a warning, it's entirely normal if your urine smells quite strongly after you eat asparagus.

 

[elijahboy]

this is my second year for asparagus.

mine are in 5 gallons buckets till i move. i pretty much ignored them and was surprised to see them sprout again. i thought they were gonners.

when i move i will dedicate a raised bed to them because they can last 15 to 20 years.

the first year they came up they were very thin like a coffee stirrer this year they are twice as wide.

the roots get HUGE in a year like the size of a teenage gardener snake.

my fave way to prepare them is line a cookie sheet with foil and drizzle them with butter and top them with parm cheese and broil till the cheese is a lil brown mmmm mmmmm good.

 

[elijahboy]

oh and if you keep hilling them as the aparagus grows you will end up with white asparagus which are much more tender and thats what im going to try next year.

just keep the dirt as tall as the tallest spear.

i found this out this year because the 5 gallon bucket got topped off with leaves last year and it turned to compost which turned into dirt and like a month ago i removed some dirt and i had white asparagus until i removed the dirt.

 

[Our7Wonders]

Oooh, I do! Got to ditto the fresh asparagus, OMG yum. Mine is coming up well right now and I've had to restrain myself from nibbling it. (Waiting on it to get established)
2 ways, 1 for cold, wet, clay type soils. The other for decent dirt.

1. For clay, layer a little bit of compost, potting soil, etc on the ground where you want it. Put crowns there and cover with dirt. Water. Then as the sprouts come up, add more dirt & compost until you have a mound about 8" tall.
2. For good soil, dig a trench about 8" deep & put some good compost there. Then crowns & cover with soil. As the spears come up, cover with dirt until your trench has become level with the surrounding ground.

But what about for sandy soil? I have done raised beds thus far and have done well with them but would love to start some asparagus in a more "permanant" spot.

 

[Marianne]

I don't know about sandy soil. I planted mine like me&thegals. I didn't know about the manure, but it makes sense. My mother said they like lots of water, she remembers harvesting a lot of it by a creek bed when she was young.

I was grazing on mine yesterday. I just couldn't wait. There's something '*special* about that first crunch of fresh veggie in the spring!

Mine survive on a fair amount of neglect and some occasional watering.