planting and growing asparagus

Published byJamieoliver.com | April 29, 2009 | In News | No Comments »

Story by Pete Wrapson

/>Pete Wrapson, Jamie's gardener</div> <p> The British asparagus season begins towards the end of April and runs for about eight weeks. The asparagus shoots, or ‘spears’ that we eat, if left unpicked, grow to as much as five feet in height and unfurl into attractive fern-like fronds that bear bright red berries in autumn. The reason why the season is so short is that the plant must be given the chance to produce foliage, otherwise it cannot lay down the reserves necessary to repeat the performance next year. Green asparagus comes from shoots that have grown in the open air, whereas the white spears that are so popular in northern Europe are produced by denying the plants light as they grow.</p> <p>Early April is the perfect time, however, to plant an asparagus bed yourself. If you can find space for a single six foot row it will repay the effort involved but if you can plant a couple that size you’ll have a really useful amount. The site must be sunny, sheltered, have good drainage (raised beds work very well) and be free of all perennial weeds, because they will be impossible to remove from the underground mat of roots that will form as the plants grow. The easiest thing is to start not with seeds but with one year-old plants, which are known as ‘crowns’, small clumps of fleshy roots with tiny spears poking out at the centre. Spread them out at the bottom of a trench and cover them with a little earth. As the spears grow, add more soil until after a few weeks the trench is completely filled in.</p> <p>Now comes the really galling part: you mustn’t cut any spears at all in the year of planting and none the year after either, no matter how tasty they might look, since the plants need to gain strength to withstand cutting in future years. But, as with planting fruit trees, it’s worth taking the long view with asparagus: a bed should continue to crop for twenty years. If you have the space and no plans to move for a while then I really recommend it. The stuff you grow yourself is sweet enough to eat raw, plus you get to have the almost magical pleasure of finding new spears poking though the surface of the soil every couple of days. And if you are unable to grow it yourself, then keep an eye out for locally grown asparagus in the coming weeks, which is the next best thing. There’s plenty of it to be found in Norfolk and the Fens.</p> <p>You can, of course, buy it all year-round – Peru being the world’s biggest exporter – but it’s an inferior-tasting product for having come so far, leaving aside the issue of whether we really should be flying perishable goods all over the world when there are plenty of other nice things to eat closer to home. One of the real rewards of growing food or of shopping with an awareness of seasonality is that you get to experience vegetables and fruit at their peak of ripeness. It doesn’t matter that after June is over I probably won’t eat asparagus again for ten months. If I had it all the time I wouldn’t appreciate it for the delicacy it is. It’s that happy anticipation that has me checking my own bed every couple of days now, in case the mild weather coaxes a few brave spears out of the ground ahead of schedule. And in any case, by June I will already be looking forward to the first strawberries.</p> <p>About the Author: Pete Wrapson is a very experienced gardener who lovingly takes care of Jamie’s garden in Essex. To accompany this article we have posted Jamie’s thoughts on growing asparagus in <a href=Foodwise

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