Asparagus in May |
Recipe: Fresh Asparagus Pasta |
Asparagus is one of the first vegetables to arrive at the Farmers' Market in Spring. The tender, perennial spears appear for a few weeks in May, to be savored before leafing out into huge fernlike fronds. Many older homes and farmsteads in Maine already have a bed or two of asparagus, only in need of weeding and feeding to return to production. Some varieties of asparagus are incredibly long lived, producing for as much as 30 years from a single planting.
Asparagus is a perennial, and therefore must have a permanent location. Double-dug beds of rich, well-drained soil in a sunny location are ideal. Remove all perennial weeds and amend the bed with compost or well-rotted manure. Add lime and rock phosphate to the beds at planting time, since asparagus is a heavy feeder of phosphorus, and prefers a slightly alkaline soil.
Asparagus can be grown from either seed or root crowns. Until recently, planting asparagus seed was considered impractical, since young seedlings of older cultivars could take years to reach bearing size. However, newer varieties such as the Jersey series developed by Rutgers University are vigorous enough to produce edible spears after only a season or two. Here at Fisher Farm we put in a large planting of Jersey Knight last spring, and we got our first small picking in late April of this year. Asparagus seed should be started 10 to 12 weeks before the frost-free date.
Crowns can be planted out as soon as the soil can be worked in spring, but seedlings must wait until all danger of frost is past. If planting crowns, dig a trench 6 to 8 inches deep, half-fill it with composted manure, and plant the crowns 8 inches apart and 2 inches deep with their roots well spread out. As the season progresses and the plants grow, gradually backfill the trench with soil. New asparagus beds require an inch or so of water per week. Do not cut back asparagus fronds until they die back in Fall. Mulch the plantings thickly, since asparagus can winterkill if snow cover is poor. New plantings can be harvested lightly the first year, but probably shouldn't be, to avoid sapping the plants' vigor. Harvest asparagus only until the diameter of the thickest spears drops to less than half an inch.
Once your asparagus bed is established, the only real care it will require is occassional feeding with manure and compost, and weeding. Weeds can be a real problem in the asparagus bed because is permanent and the weeds can become strongly established if allowed to do so. Quack grass, sometimes called witch grass, is one of the worst offenders because it will send entangling rhizomes for long distances even under mulch and into the asparagus roots. The only cure is to keep the patch well weeded.
Picking time is a matter of choice. Some people like thin young stalks the size of pencils, some wait until the asparagus is as thick as your thumb. Homegrown asparagus should be tender and flavorful at almost any size. A special forked tool can be used to pick asparagus, cutting off the stalk an inch or so below the soil surface.
People used to claim that the only way to cook asparagus was to steam the delicate stalks upright in a coffeepot, but microwaving on high for just a few minutes in a glass dish covered with plastic wrap works just as well. Asparagus stems are tough, so snap them off at the natural breaking point.
The Belfast Farmer's Market will be opening at its summer location, Reny's Plaza, on Friday May 7. Early in the season we will have seedlings to get your garden started, asparagus, eggs, pork, beef, lamb and poultry, preserves, breads, crackers, and snacks. The market is held Fridays and Saturdays, 9-1, and Tuesdays 2:30-5:30. Look for us rain or shine, under the big green sign.