I cut several spears today. They were in a clump I hadn't checked for a few days and a few were tall and large. Jay

I cut few and bbq today, they were too good!

Yum yum.

I finally planted asparagus this year and look forward to future harvests. It has taken me ages to get to the point that I felt like I had eliminated the Johnson grass that invades the garden on the north side where an asparagus bed would need to go so it wouldn't shade other plants. Now that I have one bed of it, I want another, so after the rain passes I'll start working on another raised bed north of the current one, but probably won't plant asparagus in that bed until next year. At the rate the rain is falling, I may not get that area double dug and raised until next year anyway.

I am glad y'all are enjoying your asparagus.

Dorothy, Everything is so early, it makes you wonder what happens to our "late" crops if the abnormal heat remains a very long trend.

Ooh, I'm jealous! I started asparagus from seed last year and it's doing well. It's already starting to come up this year and I'm very, very tempted to pick some! I need to get it transplanted to its permanent bed as soon as hubby gets it built. Wouldn't it be a shame if a stalk accidentally broke off while I was moving it and it fell in my mouth?

Diane

I thought mine was dead after the horrible summer, especially since everyone was talking about it coming up early. But today I found one large spear and another poking out of the ground. It was yummy!

I was planning to solarize that bed this summer so I'm just going to eat each one as it comes up. I bought these roots at WalMart anyway. Once I get a good spot for another bed, I'll get some good quality roots for it.

Do you trellis or tie off the ferns? Mine is in its second year and the ferns are about 4' tall right now, I'm looking at their stems and they are thin... How do you protect them from the winds?

Diane, I picked a few from my bed this year, then told Al that Jay said to pick it if it was the size of a pen or bigger, otherwise let it grow. I saw a little grin and I think he must have found a 'thin' pen somewhere, because I have seen him nibbling on a few more. My bed was put in early last Spring but the roots were huge.

Melissia, my patch is in a raised bed, but they kind of laid over on each other last year.

Oh, and Diane, how's the foot?

Oh, Carol, that is good news!!!! I was out there looking at them again today and many of them are the size of Magic Markers. I smell a snack in my future! Wait. Do they still make Magic Markers?

My ankle is still not able to bear any weight whatsoever but I have some range of motion now. I can wiggle my toes some and even flex my foot a bit. I'm thinking it'll be a couple of weeks at least before I can even begin putting any weight on it at all. Horribly frustrating! You should see me out there in the yard & garden, crutches, hobbling, crawling, and scootching around on my butt. Quite the sight, I imagine. LOL

Diane

I have so many new garden projects going this year, but I am really looking forward to an asparagus bed! It is on the list for next year. Yum!

Dawn, I'm not only worried about the late crops, but the early ones as well. My peas do not look happy.

Mellisia, My asparagus bed is too large to trellis. We just let ours flop.

I plan on starting some aspargus from seed this yr. I am considering starting the seed around september. I have only found a couple of source say seeds do well started in the fall.
My thoughts were I could put bush beans as an early summer crop then plant the aspargus seed in the fall. If the aspargus doesn't thrive then I am only out a few seeds.

Your seed may not germinate until the following spring, but it is certainly possible to get asparagus from seed. I got over 600 crowns from the seed I planted many years ago and every spring I find more seedlings coming up under the few female plants in the patch.

We have more and more spears coming of the ground! I have harvested a dozen of spears size of a pen or bigger spears as per the Jay/Carol's tips. I have left thin spears to grow as I not found a pen Al is using. If they are not putting enough spears to eat then I may go ask ask Al.

What is best way to cook these asparagus? What is the best way to BBQ?

-Chandra

I usually either eat mine raw, cook it with some water and covered till tender or grill it. I like it all 3 ways. Chandra I think Al might use a pen that has been on a diet. LOL. I use a regular pen to go by. Several of the spears in the picture look just right. Jay

Nice, Chandra. I like to steam them in a steamer or cook them in a pan with just a little water. I don't cook them long. We like them still a bit crunchy. With frozen asparagus I will sometimes make cream of asp soup.

Al is laughing and saying he 'catches it' from everyone. However, I know of no one who deserves it more. LOL

Chandra, I have my favorite way to cook it and it is easy. You can use a regular lemon or lime, but I keep products called True Lime and True Lemon, in my pantry all of the time. You can buy it in Walmart in small boxes, but I order it in bulk because I use it so much. It is a small packet of crystallized juice that is about the size of pack of sweetener that you find on the table in restaurants. I have a little plastic box that sits on the cabinet by my stove which has True Lemon, True Lime, and True Orange and we use it in cooking or just to add flavor to a dish that is improved by a little citrus flavor, like a stir fry for instance. I use it in salad dressings, and marinades, etc. I don't buy the orange, but they frequently have a sale where you buy a certain amount and they give you a free box of your choice. I buy lemon and lime in bulk and use the 'free' offer to get orange. I am not interested in the grapefruit.

Now, I put a little olive oil on a cookie sheet, sprinkle on a package of True Lemon or True Lime, and salt. Then I add a little more olive oil to the top and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees. After a few minutes, I move it around and flip it over a little so the oil coats it and it doesn't dry out. We don't cook ours very long, but you could cook it any length you wanted to as long as you don't over cook it.

Chandra, If you want to try True Citrus products and can't find it in your store, let me know and I will send you some samples. It is just the juice without a sweetener, but they do make a lemonade drink sweetened with stevia which will be in the same display, so don't get them confused. It will probably be in the display with Crystal Light and Kool Aid type drink mix.

My daughter doesn't drink soft drinks, so keeps these packs in her purse to add to her water bottle when she is away from home. Disclaimer: I have no connection to the company, but we love the product. I rarely buy fresh lemons or limes anymore.If you subscribe to the newsletter you will be notified of all of the sales. Some of them are great. If you are interested, write to me and I will tell you how I buy.

Here is a link that might be useful: True Citrus

Dorothy,

My peas are not happy either. I fear it is going to get too hot too early just like it did last year and the peas are going to sulk. Our temps include the mid-80s beginning about Saturday I think.

I have a lot of peas growing and I sure don't want for the heat to slow them down or interfere with their production. I cannot believe you and I are having this discussion for the second consecutive year. Remember the good old days when the weather stayed cool in the cool season and hot in the hot season? It is a memory that's fading fast.

As mixed up as our temperatures and plants are, just imagine what this weather is doing to gardeners in the upper midwest where the temperatures have been off the charts, sometimes 30-40 degrees higher than average or even more. I bet they don't know what to plant or when to plant it.

Dawn

Chandra, I love to roast asparagus in the oven, very easy and delicious. Heat to 425 so oven gets really hot first, get a cookie sheet and cover it with foil (to make clean-up super easy) wash and THOROUGHLY dry your asparagus with some paper towels. Place on the sheet, drizzle with a good amount of olive oil and season with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Roast until desired doneness (depends on thickness of spears and how crunchy you like them). I like tips brown and crispy, body of spear brown but not mushy. After a few minutes, you can open the oven and jiggle the pan to roll the spears in the oil to better coat them. Yummy! I can eat platefuls of this.

Can you believe I've never had asparagus cooked? I hated asparagus my entire life until hubby brought some home a year or two ago that he picked along a fence line on the way home from work. I don't remember what it was he said to get me to try a bite but I'm glad he did! I've been munching on them raw every chance I get since then. Turns out I'm allergic to them, like a lot of things, but not so bad as to keep me away from them... yet.

Diane

The problem with my asparagus is also the thickness of the stalks. However... I have a bed that I planted over twenty years ago that is still producing very well. It even survived a tilling by an over-enthusiastic garden helper son-in-law. However, as the plants are very mature now, many of the spears are very thick... up to 3/4" in diameter... and my wife insists they are too tough to eat. Does anyone know how to get the plants to produce THINNER spears? Is it simply a matter of harvesting a bit more aggressively? Perhaps harvesting over a longer season to "weaken" the plants for next season? Any suggestions?

Actually it should be the fat ones that are the best. The ones that I leave to grow are the thin ones. They will get hard in a few days and fern out. Are you leaving the stems until they are too tall and starting to open, maybe? I had one yesterday that was the size of a large magic marker, but I could easily break it off. I'm sure the experts will be along to give you a real answer.

I agree with Carol, I have been raising asparagus and selling it for many many years and I believe the larger spears are the tenderest. If yours aren't, you may be leaving it too long, as Carol suggests. Also hot dry weather will toughen any spear, so it helps to mulch deeply. But if you are determined to have smaller spears, you can pick longer and that should weaken the plants some. Be careful that you don't overdo it though.

Also as Carol mentioned asparagus should always be picked by breaking not cutting, as the spear will break at the tender portion. It is also important to pick in the morning after the spears have had time to take up water overnight. And most mornings there will be a picking ready. We pick every day the spears that are over 6" tall.

I appreciate the replies. I would like to emphasize that it is my wife who insists the thicker spears are tougher. It could be all in her head. Though I eat very little of the asparagus, I have not noticed any toughness. I don't always pick in the morning but I do pick by snapping the stalks not cutting with a knife. Also, the spears emerge from the ground this thick. I pick them at perhaps six to eight inches and they are nowhere near opening up.

If your wife is mathmatically inclined have her imagine a circle and the area inside. The bigger the spears get the more "inside" they have--and that is the tender part. I had a customer years ago who thought like your wife, but most of my current customers like the big spears.

hurricane's wife may be like me. I was always told that the big ones were tough! For years my husband (who loves asparagus) kept putting off the idea of asparagus growing here because of 1. no room. 2. no place for a bed. So I planted mine in the back of my flower bed and have my tulips & herbs in the front. Showed it to him earlier this spring & pointed out that if he had just given in earlier (sometime in the last 10 years), we could've been eating our own asparagus this year.