Asparagus?

[suey1973]

Thoughts as they come to me:

Don't burn it off in the spring.   Took alot of time to get my in-laws to understand that you will burn the tops of your "roots".

Go ahead and cut the thick ones off.   I cut them and just cook the tops of them.   

I cut off the thin ones for several weeks  until  I'm just about ready to let it go to seed.   In fact,  I mow off the whole patch, high on the mower deck,   in May sometime  when the grass starts getting ahead of me.   I'm afraid to use herbicides but may have to if I don't get a couple of weeds dealt with in my patch.  

I take grass clippings  and mulch around the entire patch to help control the weeds and grasses too.  

Watch the moles and voles.   They  like to eat the roots. 

Got to go our and pick the first batch for MIL.   She walked out about 2 weeks ago.   Furtherest she had walked in about 6 months.    She even cleaned off one small spot.   So I finished it the next day.    If she tries to walk outside today it will blow her down. 

Our patches are 30 years old and ageless for the other one. 

[turkey feather]

Thanks for the tips.

[Kay/NC]

I saw a gardening book or article once that said to mow your patch in thirds, to stagger the crop.  Never could get a patch started, so I wondered if that sounds like good or bad advice to you...

[LauraW]

My mom does have asparagus in her garden, but it grows wild along a lot of our fence lines so during the summer we go asparagus hunting every few days.  We LOVE it in my family.  We literally would fight over the bowl when my mom would make it.  We always just steam it and put butter on it, and it is delicious! The tops are the most delicious part!

My grandpa has even made a "map" with our fields on it and the fence line showing just where the asparagus is! 

[LauraW]

My mom also pickles it, but I don't like it like that because it tastes just like a pickle then, and I think asparagus is so good why ruin it!  If I want a pickle, I'll eat a pickle!  But, my hubby does like it pickled.  He'll put an asparagus spear in his beer... he says it's good, but I don't know!

[manureseller]

I'm an Asparagus freak and FINALLY got hubby to eat them.  He only likes the tips but will at least eat them.  Growing up we had a wild patch down by the one grove and then also along a fence line that dad would send me out to pick.  I find them growing wild all the time in the road ditches here so I pick them and cook them up.  My mom pickles them and they are yummy that way also.   I like to lightly sautee' them with olive oil or I'll dribble olive oil on them and roast them with seasame seeds.

[Kay/NC]

I think a lot of fence lines got pulled out when farm programs supported bigger acreages...wasn't that when Earl Butz was Secretary of Agriculture. Anyway, a lot of small fields with fences in between them back home turned into fewer, much larger ones with hardly any fence lines anymore. Fewer people keeping cows, etc.
Here, there was not an inch of fence line on 330 acres we bought, and hardly any to be found in the whole county. I wonder if some of the herbicides commonly used have killed off aspargus in spots, too. Haven't ever heard anyone here so much as mention hunting, and there are no good blackberry patches, either. Those were along every pasture's edge back home, too....

[turkey feather]

I never see asparagus growing wild here any more. But I have seen the farmer spraying along one bank and fence row that was once a good asparagus spot. Fence are removed every spring in this area.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

I think white asparagus is best, but it's almost impossible to find in the states.  I'm too lazy to raise my own.  We bought milk from the German farmer when we lived there and in asparagus season, you could taste the asparagus in the milk.

[Kay/NC]

Never thought about it flavoring milk...know It imparts a specific aroma to urine!

Do you remember having milk at school when you were a kid, when the wild onion taste came through in every carton?