Eureka! Or, better yet… Spargelzeit! Join me in celebrating asparagus time, one of my favorite highlights of the seasonal culinary calendar. For a month or two our asparagus cravings are sated sunup to sundown. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
Why so obsessive? Because the season is short. Because these delicate shoots look like and taste like the quintessence of springtime! Because after many months dormant, our gardens are nourishing us anew. The reliable return of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) marks a real and symbolic return to abundance.
Provide for the Earth, and she will provide for us.
Although I’m an eager proponent of starting the day with green eggs and ham, today let’s break fast with the colorful asparagus and smoked salmon scramble.
Fresh eggs so yellow they’re almost orange from Full and By Farm dramatically offset the vibrant green of the just-harvested asparagus. The contrast in colors sets the stage for the unique flavor profile.
While green asparagus is a bit grassy, white asparagus is sweeter and has just a hint of bitterness. (Source: the kitchn)
Yes, “a bit grassy”. Perhaps this is part of why I enjoy spring asparagus so much. Like cattle turned out into fresh pastures, my pallet, my imagination, and my whole being hunger for new, nourishing, revitalizing, and green. Excitement is inevitable.
And what about that white asparagus?
Many prefer it. It certainly enjoys greater celebrity. In fact, Spargelzeit pretty specifically refers to the seasonal fêting of white asparagus in Germany. (So, yes, I’ve taken some literary license.)
The difference between green and white asparagus is that white asparagus is grown underground. As the spears of white asparagus grow, they’re completely covered with a thick mound of dirt or black plastic so they’re never exposed to the sunlight. This prevents them from producing chlorophyll, the green-tinted molecule that’s responsible for turning sunlight into energy. Green asparagus, on the other hand, is exposed to sunlight. Growers allow the spears to poke freely out of the dirt, produce chlorophyll, and turn green. (Source: the kitchn)
Did you know this surface/subsurface distinction accounts for green or ghostly asparagus spears? Needless to say, as holistic gardeners we try to work *with* nature, allowing, indeed encouraging asparagus’ verdant aspirations. Chlorophyll is key! (And IMO, green asparagus is simply tastier.)
But I’m wandering off on a tangent. Back on track: asparagus sunup to sundown. Or at least book ending the day with breakfast and dinner…
Pan seared chicken breast green beans and steamed asparagus with ramp vinaigrette.
Yum.
Truth be told, these photographs document an asparagus breakfast and an asparagus dinner four years ago, on May 4, 2020. Smack dab in the early days of the pandemic. Susan and I were “hunkering down” at Rosslyn. Pam and Bob had initially kept us provisioned during our compulsory two week quarantine, but by May we were still struggling to source many of our normal staples, especially fresh produce. And that meant that asparagus time was especially luxurious!
During that time, we explored some relatively unfamiliar ingredients — like the pre-sliced chicken breast above — because we were adapting to whatever resources were available. Something about that snapshot above takes me back to those curious days. Coronavirus chicken breast. I don’t think I’ve purchased or cooked pre-sliced chicken breast since. But in those surreal stay-at-home days, we were thrilled with anything fresh and healthy and tasty that we could get our hands on.
The delicious ramp vinaigrette from Hub on the Hill definitely fulfills the tasty requirement. And married with garden fresh asparagus? Sublime.
As it turns out, today’s daily dispatch has meandered the margins rather than focusing on asparagus sunup to sundown. Yes, you can almost taste the asparagus in the scrambled eggs at the beginning and in the chicken-with-veggies photo. But now that I’m ready to wrap up, I’m aware of a lingering curiosity about green versus white, asparagus. And I’m yielding to an almost melancholy mind wandering back into the early days of the pandemic. It was a confusing and painful time and so many respects, and yet there were also some beautiful, even transformative outcomes. The icehouse rehabilitation, for example…
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