Valley Bounty, May 17, 2014: Asparagus

Somehow, nothing says spring like asparagus, despite the joys of early season greens, ramps, and radishes. Maybe it’s the forecast of the bounty and variety to come, or just the eager thrust of those new spears through the soil. Fresh picked, you don’t need to do much more to asparagus than grill or steam it and sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper.  But if you crave reasons to include asparagus in as many meals as possible during its short season, we have recipes below—pancakes, pizza, pasta, pickles!

By Margaret Christie of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA).

Asparagus in the news

A recent NPR story focuses on 5 little-known facts about asparagus, and includes a fun time-lapse video of asparagus growing. It notes that the United States now imports 90% of the asparagus we eat, although as recently as 1989 we grew more than we consumed. Asparagus harvest is labor-intensive, and US growers are unable to compete on price with growers in countries with cheaper labor.

Sources
CISA’s list of farms with asparagus is here.

Recipes
Our asparagus recipes are here.