NIce. We had some amazingly good asparagus a couple of weeks ago. From Mexico, but it was like a tiny bit of spring. We won't get Washington asparagus for months. That as local as we can get except for my garden.

Katie, we get lots of local asparagus, the county West of us calls themselves the "Asparagus Capitol" and has an annual Asparagus Festival, complete with an Asparagus Queen, LOL. My garden produces about the same time local asparagus hits the markets. Before I planted my own I used to be able to buy it for about $1 a pound, but it was fresh from the field and the nice fat stuff, not the thin tough spears I see this early in the season.

I also managed to get some blood oranges for 99 cents a pound and small avocados, 3 for $1.00. Sometimes they get things from a Hispanic bakery and Elery likes the Ojos De Buey, but today they didn't have any.

I know Jack likes to pickle asparagus and he's been waiting...

Annie

send it down to jack, but I will conduct a QC check at the halfway point ....

Annie, those matchsticks are the only asparagus I'll eat!

Asparagus is in season here. We are seeing larger spears in all our stores. My older bed is performing well, my newer beds are producing pencil thin, and I have decided to let them go to fern. Maybe next year they will give me a decent crop. We have been harvesting the older bed for about a month now.

Plllog, you could have gotten a bushel, LOL. All the fiber in asparagus is in the outer layer, so the thinner the asparagus the less tender middle and the more tough outer layer. Especially Mother has an issue with eating those tough/fibrous stalks, so I look for the nice fat ones!

Annie

So it depends on what you expect from asparagus. I can't abide it soft. I steam it the way I do green beans. Past blanched, but still crisp. Tender to the tooth, but with some snap. They're delicious that way, and not unpleasantly fibrous. I don't know if your mother would have truck with them, but they're good!

We have a long wait here 😥

We have a long wait here 😥

Annie - thanks for the heads up! I just checked this week's ad for my usual grocery and asparagus was still at $1.99. Aldi was $1.49 when I was there last weekend. I'll hold out until it gets down to $1 before I buy enough to pickle a batch. It takes 8 lbs. to do a batch of 6 pint and a half jars. I need to pick up some more vinegar but I have 6 packets of Mrs. Wages kosher dill ready to go. No flats yet to be found again this year but I have at least 5 dozen each of regular and wide mouth in stock. I have to run to Menards soon so maybe they will have some.

I still haven't cleaned out my 2 beds of purple passion asparagus but my bed of Jersey supreme was cleared out last fall. I'm planning to clean up the PP beds this weekend along with a couple weed infested tomato beds.

I usually start getting some harvestable spears in early to mid April most years but it doesn't start coming on fast until late April or early May. I'm determined to pickle some of the purple stuff this year. Nice, fat, tender spears thick as my thumb.

I'm going to shop for produce today, so will check prices here in the Pacific northwest of Canada, but I kid you not, I saw asaragus last week for 7.99 (Canadian) a pound! I was afraid to even walk near it at that price!

Great price! I just bought some for 99 cents a pounds which is about as low as it gets around here (SoCal). Easy to find year round but the price can be $4/lb. I prefer the thicker stalks and roasting is my favorite way to cook them.

$7.99?? Wow that's a ridiculous price! You sure it wasn't for a kilo? lol

Does Canada not get the imported Mexican asparagus this time of year? That's when the price starts coming down here in the US and it is good quality. Most of the winter it comes from South America (Peru I think) and I don't bother with it at $4+ a pound, poor quality, and not at all fresh. I'll eat what I have frozen from the garden or none at all when I run out. We've been eating asparagus 3 times a week for the last month or so. Gotta make hay while the sun shines!

Pickled sounds good. Not sure if I've ever had asparagus that way.

I think, like most produce we grow in our gardens, they are their best as fresh as possible. I like it at all sizes if fresh. Though use it differently.

If I've had asparagus out and about or from a grocery, maybe 50 times a year, 500 times the past 10 years, it is a coin flip, 50/50, it will be good.

I also think it is one of the most difficult to judge when shopping. When I lost my crop a few years ago, I went down the rabbit hole of google. So much conflicting information. Having had the home grown experience, I know what it should be. Second and very close would be local grown or farmstand or farm market. A smaller farm will know best when to harvest and get it to market asap. Big ag commerce will not do so well at fresh. (like mealy apples)

I see the far right 'unmarketable' all the time...and mild slimy tips. Annie's pic is sold properly in water trays. Asparagus is a sponge. When I bring it home I cut a bit off the stem end and sit in an inch of water. They can be stored that way in the fridge. I only purchase if I have a plan to use timely. If a bunch has both sizes, I use the pencil ones first, barely cooked/blanched. Or in a frittata chopped. 3 inches of tips go on the last five-10 minutes. The big sturdy ones are my favorite holding up well to grilling, roasting, etc.

This five minute read from the LATimes is about how I see it. Pay wall but not until I tried to see the recipes. Link, HERE

2018 I started from seed. Obviously over-seeded. Then at work one morning I cruised some pics. Yikes, aphids. That was a long day planning the attack.

I culled, and just two dozen will go into a proper bed this spring. Back into the homegrown game finally. Pretty starts.

I did order some crowns this year. For some back-up success. And started some seed as well. I know more now than I did twenty years ago.

I always put my freshly harvested spears in water too and they hold well for several days to a week. I do change the water every day or 2. That is the only way I can get enough of my own harvest at a time to pickle a full BWB batch.

At the peak of harvest I may get 1.5 - 2 lbs. a day so it will still take 4 or 5 days to get the 8 lbs. I need for a batch. And that is if we don't eat any of it which doesn't happen.

Sleevendog - you really should try some pickled. Everyone loves it when I take some to gatherings.

Shopped for produce today, and asparagus, (different store) was 3.99/lb. Imported from Mexico but way to skinny for my liking. In the last couple of years, early spring, it could be had for about 1.29/lb at the lowest, but considering how much produce has gone up in the last year, I will be happy to find it for 2.00/lb. It's my favourite vegetable, aside from artichokes which are few and far between up here north of the 49th. Guess we trade free health care for cheap vegetables...

Nekotish, maybe you could grow some? An asparagus plant will continue to produce for a long time, up to 20 years even.

Jack, I also have to "save" asparagus for a few days if I'm making a batch of pickles, but Elery and the youngest granddaughter, Maci, like it raw. They just keep snitching stalks out of the refrigerator container and then I look and shake my head and go out and pick more, LOL. The second planting should be good for unlimited picking this year, so that gives me 200 crowns to pick this year, the family can eat as much as they want, LOL.

Mine won't be ready until probably the end of May, depending on the weather, so it'll be a while. I also like it best roasted, so we'll probably have it tomorrow with something.

Annie

We bought asparagus last week at Stater Brothers for 79¢ a bunch, but I know don't whether the bunch weighed a pound or not. I think it contained 36 spears. I cook 12 at a time, as I consider six to be one serving. My favorite way to have them is inside crêpes, and I usually add mushrooms. I also like them pickled, but I have not pickled them myself.

Lars, t'm going to check our Staters. They were 99 cents a pound at Vons.

I miss my asparagus bed! Not sure it's worth it to start a new one at this point! Sometimes my lunch was asparagus and snow peas in the garden!

There's some organic available from the farm this week, but you don't want to know the price...

I think I know where you are Annie. Jealous. Road trip? We are contemplating one. I am not allowed any more kitchen projects though. One at a time. We just got a new Instapot and right now our focus is on yogurt. Pretty soon it will be seed starting. So meals are just basic and road trips are on hold. But not forever . . .

I need to expand my stores -- I'm happy when asparagus breaks $2. And the in-state crop has started already! $0.79 is a price I don't think I've even seen at the roadside stands

I just checked. 1.99 for pencil. 3.99 for colossal and white. All from Peru. I'm sure the are delivered quick and above average quality since they supply restaurants...would rather wait for mine or get local in season if mine does not do well.

200 crowns is impressive Annie!

For years we would just wait for the seasons and better prices. Like corn.

My favorite market similar to Annie's market pic...I know when they get a product, it will be excellent. Maybe not a ten but not ever disappointing. Strawberries, blueberries, all berries will be fresh and not moldy. And good prices. Unfortunately it is 30 miles north.

Sleevendog, that market I went to is 40 miles south of me, but here in the sticks, we consider that local and if it's not snowing and the roads are cleared, it's not a bad drive.

Annie

Thick stalks are preferred here too, and we grow our own. We bought the seed in Germany because my husband wanted to grow white asparagus, like he had growing up in Germany. It's a variety called 'Ruhm von Braunschweig', no longer grown commercially, just like so many old varieties here. Of course it's only white when it's covered and blanched, I like it fine without that.

Here was a first harvest one April

Boy, you guys are getting ripped off on asparagus! I am about to head to my local produce market for the "3# for a $1" stuff.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of the ground this year.

The thick 30 inches of snow on the asparagus patch will keep the ground at a constant 32F for a very long time.

The white of the snow will reflect the sun and insulate the temperature. The fact that the soil will not be frozen and will not be warmer than 32F for a very long time may make a big difference to asparagus roots.

We will see. soon.

dcarch

So love early Spring!. Exciting time of the year in the 4 season climates. I've started a two crate packing for next weeks visit to the farm and maple tapping. So far it looks like a good maple season. Asparagus might be free if it did what we have hoped for...

"----So far it looks like a good maple season.---"

I hope so. I have a giant butternut nut tree, about 80 feet tall. I tapped about three bottles of syrup out from it last spring.

Nutty flavor syrup. amazing.

There are not that many butternut trees around. Many of them died from disease.

dcarch

Nice thing about a slow snow melt is natures drip irrigation. So healthy for the garden. This weekend is a bit too cold. Maple needs below freezing at night time temps, and above freeing daytime temps for good flow. Wringing my paws for next weekend...yadayada happy dance.

Nova Scotia 5.99 a lb is not unusual. $4 is a good price, rare to see it less.

dcarch, we had a big butternut tree at the farm, and as you mentioned, it died of the fungus that has killed 90% of the butternut trees in Michigan. I was sad, as it had been there my whole life.

Here it's been maple tapping weather, but just barely. It's above freezing in the day, but only by a couple of degrees, and down in the teens and low 20s at night. It's going to be 40s and 50s next week, though, and mostly below freezing, the taps have been going out slowly and that'll pick up this weekend, I think.

Peppi, that's a pretty good price on asparagus, I always paid about a dollar, even if I bought it right out of the field. Of course it was fresh and local and I always feel good about helping out any of my neighboring farmers, so I was happy enough with that. Now I'm just waiting for mine. That, of course, requires the 3 feet of snow on top of it to melt, LOL.

Annie

My trees only give me and the area critters nuts, no sticky goodness. Mostly Oak, Walnut, Hickory and dead/dying Ash from the borers around here.

My grocery has Asparagus for $1/lb now but the spears were too thin for good pickling. I might try Aldi on Wednesday when I have to venture into the city to pick up some Dixondale onion bunches and seed potatoes.

I bought some last week. $4.99 on sale. It’s nice though!

The lowest price here, so far, is 1.49lb.