By John, on May 1st, 2011 |
  First asparagus harvest of 2011. The asparagus is now growing furiously. We had our first full harvest on Monday and by this weekend we’d had another two additional harvests (I consider a harvest enough to feed our family of four). Our favorite way to prepare fresh asparagus is to cut the spears into bite sized pieces and lightly saute them in butter with a dash of salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice when they come off the heat. If you harvest promptly, when the spears are about seven inches tall, even the bases of the stems cook up nice and tender. Can’t say that about store-bought asparagus. …continue reading
By John, on April 18th, 2011 |
 On Monday I went out to the asparagus bed and counted eight spears poking their way up through the soil. By the weekend that number had tripled and most of them look to be nice and fat. I’ve read that asparagus planted too shallow will result in thin, spindly spears. Planting deeper yields fewer but fatter spears.
With asparagus, the third season is supposed to be the first full harvest. Last year was our third season but, after a promising start, it ended up being disappointing with a lot of thin and misshapen spears. I’m praying that we don’t have a virus. I lavished some extra attention on them over the season last year in the hope of coaxing them into a better harvest this year. Within a matter of weeks I’ll learn whether those efforts have paid dividends or whether our asparagus has a problem. So far, so good. …continue reading
By John, on July 27th, 2010 |
 Our asparagus harvest this spring was very disappointing. It is our third year and everything we’ve read told us this would be the first year we would have a full harvest. We harvested some but many of the stalks were thin, not the fat succulent Jersey Giant stalks we had expected. I did a little research yesterday and discovered that we should have added superphosphate to the furrows when we …continue reading
By John, on April 22nd, 2009 |
 Last year we built a raised bed and planted 40 Jersey Giant asparagus plants. Over the summer they all came up and we had a beautiful “wall” of 3-4 ft high fronds. This is now the second season for the plants and supposedly we can do a light harvest so I carefully cut about 5 of the stalks to sample. Just like everything else in the garden, fresh asparagus is so much juicier and flavorful than …continue reading
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First asparagus harvest of 2011. The asparagus is now growing furiously. We had our first full harvest on Monday and by this weekend we’d had another two additional harvests (I consider a harvest enough to feed our family of four). Our favorite way to prepare fresh asparagus is to cut the spears into bite sized pieces and lightly saute them in butter with a dash of salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice when they come off the heat. If you harvest promptly, when the spears are about seven inches tall, even the bases of the stems cook up nice and tender. Can’t say that about store-bought asparagus. …continue reading
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