Asparagus: An Aspiring Spear

“Nature gives us the key to every secret that concerns our happiness, and in respect of asparagus cultivation she is liberal in her teaching,” Sutton & Son – The Culture of Vegetables and Fruit from Seeds and Roots (1884)

The dawn chorus heralds the arrival of the first spears, an eagerly awaited culinary delight for asparagus lovers like me.

‘All good things come to those who wait’, a quote by the Victorian poet Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie (1843–1905), is certainly true for those of us who love to rush to the kitchen with an armful of freshly cut asparagus in late spring and gorge ourselves on this magnificent vegetable.

Asparagus Season

By the middle of April my first morning stop in the vegetable plot is at the asparagus bed. Can I see the early signs of pleasures to come – pale pinkish- green little noses pushing their way out of the soil?

Must I make do with just a few spears until the crop is growing full tilt in May? Can I bear to share a surplus or shall I make more soup to freeze and enjoy that asparagus taste out of season, just like my distant ancestors, the Romans?

I have never found asparagus an easy plant to establish in my vegetable plot, although to read gardening books on the subject it should be.

History of Asparagus

A member of the lily family, Asparagus officinalis is believed to be another native of the Fertile Crescent, where it was depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs from the Memphis dynasties of the third millennium bce.

It was grown in Asia Minor and Syria more than 2,000 years ago and was much loved by the Greeks and Romans.

The Greeks described asparagus as the fruit of a ram’s horn thrust into the ground.

Centuries later this myth was employed as an insult – thumbs and fingers outstretched on either side of the temples signifying the horn-wearing cuckold.

The Roman elder Cato wrote instructions as to its cultivation in 200 bce and Pliny the Elder, 200 years later, described three spears together weighing the equivalent of 325g (111⁄2 oz).

So, just as today, even in Roman times size mattered.¹

Where Does “Asparagus” Come From?