| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| sean |
Asparagus...Saw the first Cornish asparagus in the greengrocer's this morning.
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| judith |
Nary a sign of the stuff in my asparagus bed 
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| Fee |
wooop, will keep an eye out then
Asparagus, how I've missed thee, for it seems so long since last we met. When I gobbled you all up smothered in butter. |
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| sean |
Apparently it's one farm with a particularly sheltered microclimate. There was something about them in the Indie this Saturday. | ||||
| Stewy |
Might go to the Asparagus festival this year.
http://www.britishasparagusfestival.org/ |
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| Vic |
Ours was starting to come up... and then it snowed. Had two rather elderly, tired spears yesterday and I think the next picking will be a while... | ||||
| tigger |
Picked a bunch of wild asparagus last sunday in the woods. | ||||
| Vic |
Ate some wonderful asparagus risotto near Bologna the week before last! | ||||
| tigger |
Altedo? | ||||
| LynneA |
Some of the crowns I planted earlier this year are starting to poke their heads above ground.
Hopefully, this time next year, I'll be getting ready to roast them in small bundles held together with streaky bacon, drizzled with olive oil and showered with a generous grinding of black pepper. More likely though I'll look at the bed and wonder where all the b****y couch has come from 
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Re: Asparagus...
We're all coming round to yours for tea. A. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Re: Asparagus...
Did you buy any of the 'foreign' asparagus then? 
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| Jamanda |
I only know one place that grows over here, and I think it's protected. |
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| Jamanda |
Re: Asparagus...
No, because I was doing tea (Chicken curry and DS saag - ramsoms and ground elder). But I'm sre we'll having some before long. |
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| cab |
Keep an eye out for overgrown sparrowgrass plants around hedges, old railway lines etc. wherever in the country it is farmed, it isn't that uncommon to encounter 'domestic' asparagus self seeded in the wild. Ours in the garden is throwing up plenty of spears at the moment. |
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| Jamanda |
But make sure it isn't this. If you are inland you'll be fine. | ||||
| cab |
A real rarity, but quite a different looking plant to regular sparrowgrass. |
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| Jamanda |
That photo doesn't look anything like what I saw - and I was with the official recorders for the area. This was like asparagus shoots, but spindlier and more prostate. Maybe that's what the shoots look like when they come out. | ||||
| cab |
I've never seen the young shoots of that form; the adult frondy bits are rather different to cultivated asparagus though. The leaflets seem much more densely packed. Fascinated to hear that the younger shoots are more like 'asparagus' though. I suppose thats what you'd expect.
Must be damned hard to find it in the wild when the shoots are so young, such an inconspicuous little thing. Presumably you had a good idea where you were looking? |
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| Jamanda |
Yes - we were looking for a few very rare things that lived in that area - a watercrow's foot and a tiny little pearlwort. We found them all.
Or rather the experts did. |
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| tigger |
quite common here. you sometimes see it on the roadsides too but I prefer to pick it in the woods away from the exhaust fumes!! It's much skinnier than cultivated asparagus, very spindley so it's often difficult to see. lovely in a risotto or omelette. | ||||
| Vic |
Is that a place, or a type of risotto?? It was in someone's home (well, sort of) up in the hills near Sasso Marconi. Fantastic spot and such a wonderful time of year to be in Italy, even tho I was working. |
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| thos |
The local Carrefour is selling asparagus with no provenance and no date and it looks ancient - the very Fanny Cradock of asparagus. Fortunately there seem to be no takers. | ||||
| tigger |
Town I live in! home to the "Festa del Asparago " - the 3rd weekend in May. I put a link on about it at about this time last year |
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| Vic |
A Festa del Asparago!!
The Italians really do have their priorities right... |
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| tigger |
but they sometimes go over the top. I have seen (not tasted) asparagus ice-cream that weekend too 
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