Asparagus: Don’t Knock It ’til You’ve…

Here in New York City, springtime at the Greenmarket is a stumble towards the oh-my-God glorious harvests of our rich summers. Don't let the slim-pickin' fool you: there's a wide range of tasty delights to be found on farmers' tables even these rainy May days.  One of them is asparagus, the edible stalk of Asparagus officinalis.  Sweet when fresh, savory when cooked well, asparagus is a good crop to enjoy in season.  "Carpe asparagum" while you can!

 My favorite way to eat asparagus is like a carrot: raw and in three bites.  However, if you're looking to cook it, I suggest it diced, lightly steamed for a quick minute, and then tossed in with an omlette of local eggs, light salt, and springtime herbs like chives and their just-budding flowers.  I don't really advocate cream soup, nor over-cheesing asparagus.  Its beauty is often in its freshness, and the less creative you are, the more you can take advantage of its singular taste.  Go boldly.  If you've ever not liked it before--or been embarrassed about its affect on your, um, urine--you can probably chalk it up to having been cooked for you badly in the past. It's a misused veg and I beg you to give it a second, third or fourth chance.

 Thanks to Media that Matters and an informative documentary called Asparagus: A Stalkumentary, I've commited to buying only local asparagus.  Why?  As part of our government's "war on drugs," a large amount of our asparagus crop comes from heavily subsidized Peruvian farms.  The logic was, if they're growing asparagus, they won't grow coca (the tea leaf from which cocaine can be processed)...right?  Not really.  Coca bushes, as I saw with my own eyes in Bolivia, grows in the rich, steamy forests of the highlands.  And asparagus, as you can see at the New York Botanical Garden, just loves dry, sandy soil.  The saddest part isn't just how misinformed the plan was, but also the terrible domestic toll it took: American farmers in Michigan found themselves, during their short asparagus harvest season, unable to make the profits they'd relied on to get themselves through the rest of the year.  I get mine from upstate New York and my own garden, and when I'm really jonesin' for it during the winter, I look for frozen asparagus labled "grown in Michigan".