Asparagus

[HickoryNut]

Grandma used to grow the tastiest asparagus I've ever eaten. I vaguely remember her sprinkling salt on her asparagus and her tomatoes? Now you got me all curious...

 

[BTDT]

Regular epsom salt can be used in flower beds, gardens, etc. Pretty amazing stuff. Puts magnesium in ground, or makes ground where plants can absorb magnesium easier, I forget which. Can be used as a laxative, foot soak, mixed with bath water to ease muscle aches, etc. All kinds of stuff, read the label.

 

[jimmy1]

schmism, To try to bring back the patches I would scrape all the previous years growth off the patches in the spring and then till over then about 2" deep or so. I do this to mine every spring to loosen up the soil so the shoots can easily push through from the crowns. The older the patch the deeper the crowns could be and you will not damage them. Then as previously mentioned perhaps a layer of mulch to control the grass and weed growth if it is bad, the asparagus will push through no problem. Every year I also add new crowns to some sparser areas to keep it renewed. I do not know about the salt other than epsom salts as BTDT pointed out. I use epsom salts on my tomato plants.

Egon's recipe has me longing for spring and fresh spears of the stuff right from the patch. A great vegie.

Jim

 

[schmism]

so the stuff doesnt spread on its own? it only spreds via seed? and it doesnt self seed well?

 

[jinman]

Have a deli cut you very thin slices of the ham of your choice. Lightly spread cream cheese on the ham. Using either lightly steamed aspargus, or the German white asparagus(in a jar), place a stalk of the asparagus on the ham slice. Now, roll it up, using a toothpick to hold it together. A stack of those make mighty good appetizers I have tried using proscuitto(sp?) instead of ham too.

I have the same recipe, but I also roll out white bread with the crust removed to make a thin dough. Then I roll that on the outside of the asparagus, cream cheese, and ham. Poke them with a toothpick and bake them until the bread just starts to brown. YUM!

It probably ain't on anybody's heart-healthy menu, but it sure is good.

 

[jimmy1]

OK I could stand to be corrected but I don't think it will spread or seed it self down. At least my patches don't and I have not read anything different. They are very old and I am told that if you get production from crowns for 20 - 25 years is about max and that is about the age of my oldest crowns. Some are twice the diameter of my thumb and in my clay soil the first shoots of the year will come through with a hook on the end, but when freshly picked they are the best. One of the local nurserues often has crowns in the spring and I just buy a package or two and plant them at various depths from 6 - 12".

I like the recipes that are being shared. Here is another simple one for a side dish that I think is good. Blanch the asparagus and simply drizzle with raspberry viagrette then top with crumbled bacon bits.


Jim

 

[Bird]

Jim & Robert, those are recipes I never even heard of, but they do sound good.

 

[Chuck52]

Salt is an old fashioned way to keep the weeds down in an asparagus patch because asparagus is salt tolerant. I keep my patches more-or-less weeded by hand and then when I can get it I spread something like sawdust from a friend who uses it in his horse stalls as a heavy mulch. There's a really good site at one of the Ohio universities horticulture departments....very simple instructions for planting and such.

My favorite way to cook it is to saute some garlic in olive oil and then add the fresh asparagus to saute/steam in it's own liquid. Takes only minutes.

Chuck

 

[dirtydan]

When I was a kid we had an asparagus bed. Folks put rock salt on it almost every year. I also remember putting old manure on the patch several inches thick but not every year. No weeds with the salt. It also killed the grass and weeds probably 20 feet on the down hill side of the bed from the run off.
We lived next door to a cemetery. You could also pick it wild along the fence row. They would dump old flowers over the fence and asparagus is used quite often in cut fower arrangements so it would go to seed. We always had lots of it growing up.

Dan

 

[schmism]

we had the first Asparagus harvest.

1 lb 5 oz

ill have a pic of the bounty in the morning.