asparagus

[Denim Deb]

How sandy is your soil? They grow a lot of asparagus around here, and the soil is pretty sandy in spots.

 

[valmom]

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.

OK, is anything bad wrapped in bacon and covered with hollandaise?

We are also trying to get a bed done this year- ordered my starts. Now I just have to wait for the snow to melt.

Oh- anyone know how long the dried roots/crowns keep? I bought some just commercial from the feed store a couple of years ago and never put them in dirt. They look pretty funky and dried. If I re-hydrate them think they will grow?

 

[mrs.puff]

Asparagus grows well in sandy soil. Out my way, it grows like a weed all over the place, right on the side of the gravel roads, where it isn't just sandy, it's plain gravelly.

While white asparagus is more tender, it's not as nutritious. Remember your greens!

My absolute favorite spring food is fat asparagus stalks, steamed and served with plain old salt, pepper and butter. YUM!

 

[freemotion]

In sandy soil, dig a LARGE hole and fill it with compost, make a mound in the middle and spread the roots over the mound, then fill it in with more compost. It can take up to five years to get a crop, but then it is forever.

Unless the voles kill it for you. They also ate all the roots on a small apple tree and when the ground thawed in the spring the tree fell over, rootless!

I love asparagus saute'd quickly in anything, like bacon grease, olive oil, lard....sometimes with a bit of diced garlic added or sprinkled with sesame or sunflower seeds towards the end. I like them quick stir fried so they are a bit firm, not mushy.

I also love to toss them in herbed chicken or bacon fat and add them towards the end of a pan of roasted root veggies in the winter to add a little green. Like the last 3-5 minutes of the cooking time.

Or quickly steamed and buttered and salted to really taste the springness of the asparagus.....reminds me of new-mown lawn smell.

 

[savingdogs]

Ummm...this thread is making me want to eat asparagas!

I think you are right, anything wrapped in bacon and drizzled with hollandaise is awesome, but asparagas is the perfect compliment.

I also like mine a bit crunchy. I despise canned and frozen asparagas and will not eat it at all. Not the same veggie at all. Fresh only for me.

 

[valmom]

I always thought I hated asparagus until I had real grown not canned or frozen stuff.

 

[savingdogs]

Same here. I had it served to me in a fancy restaurant and I was like ewwww! But I tried it and realized that my mom had always tried to serve us canned. Those are mushy and horrible. I used to gag trying to swallow them at dinnertime.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Many of ours won't even make it into the house. I nibble on them out in the garden. I will also put raw ones in a salad. Most of the time we just steam them. We can't even tolerate store bought "fresh" asparagus anymore.
We inherited the sparagus beds, when SO moved into his dad's house. We had to refurbish it, it was overgrown with weeds. But it is well worth the work. We have had a meal of asparagus 3 times so far. The odd ones that get picked often end up in a salad, that is if they make it into the house. Even our dog loves asparagus. We had to fence it to keep the chickens and the dog out!!!

 

[Our7Wonders]

Thanks for the sandy soil tips. Perhaps I'll give it a try this year.

I do LOVE asparagus. I saute it in butter and LOTS of garlic. MMMMmmmmmmmm!

 

[Homemaker]

They prefer well drained soil so sandy should be good. <- This info is from my Mom who use to collect "wild" asparagus when she was a kid.

I planted my first asparagus this year as well. I kept putting it off because of the whole waiting 2+ years for a harvest. But, if I don't plant any harvest time will never come.