White Asparagus or Green Asparagus - what do you prefer?

[Rumpel]

White Asparagus or Green Asparagus - what do you prefer?

 

[Rumpel]

White gold: the German love affair with pale asparagus

t is impossible to overstate the German obsession with white asparagus – typically served with butter and ham. And with around 125,000 tonnes consumed during ‘Spargelzeit season’ from April to June, more is definitely more

White gold: the German love affair with pale asparagus | Food | The Guardian

I do not agree with all of that.

But it gives you an idea.

 

[Rumpel]

And here is some more info:

Across Germany, white asparagus is mostly – and arguably best – served plainly, cooked in a light stock and plated up with melted butter, boiled potatoes or savoury pancakes and a couple of slices of cooked or cured ham. Traditional restaurants offer menus dedicated to this seasonal favourite, offering soups, salads and warm spears served with hollandaise sauce. It’s also served as a sort of add-on to other regional favourites, piled upon a schnitzel or a slice of saumagen (a haggis-like specialty from the Pfalz region), or stacked alongside a pair of hot, meaty bratwürste. When it comes to any plate of food in Germany, white asparagus is no exception: more is definitely more. That’s not a stereotype that will ever be crushed.

White gold: the German love affair with pale asparagus | Food | The Guardian

 

[Drawdown]

Green asparagus give your pee a more interesting bouquet

 

[Bum]

White Asparagus or Green Asparagus - what do you prefer?

No real preference....except to have it with a bit of melted butter and cracked black pepper.

 

[Glitch]

I only forage for wild asparagus, I don't buy them. It is always the green variety, and best when harvested before June. I forage for asparagus, fiddlehead ferns (which have a similar flavor to asparagus) and beach greens between late April and early May before salmon season begins. They freeze very well, so they can be used throughout the year.

 

[Decypher]

Green all the way. Served with the various classic accompaniments: hollandaise, Parmesan, poached egg or Parma ham.

 

[OldFatGuy]

The green are more nutritious and with a stronger flavor if not overcooked. The thicker, the better. The current vogue for skinny asparagus provides a relatively tasteless repast.

 

[Rumpel]

Green all the way. Served with the various classic accompaniments: hollandaise, Parmesan, poached egg or Parma ham.

I am for WHITE - even as we had GREEN today.

 

[Rumpel]

Have you had asparagus in 2020 already?

 

[Glitch]

Have you had asparagus in 2020 already?

I had some the other day, but it was from last year. In another 3 weeks or so the snow will be melted enough to go harvesting again for this year's crop. Fiddlehead ferns are also on my list to collect. They have a very similar flavor to asparagus, used in similar ways as asparagus, and are delicious. Most of what I like to forage are best in the Spring, like Devil's Club, beach greens, and nettles. Some you have to harvest in the Spring because by Summer they become inedible or even poisonous. During the first couple weeks of May I like to get about 20 pint-sized zip-lock freezer bags filled with asparagus and fiddlehead ferns. The beach greens, nettles, chickweed, dandelions, and other greens I harvest in May I eat fresh. They don't freeze as well.

 

[Rumpel]

I had some the other day, but it was from last year. In another 3 weeks or so the snow will be melted enough to go harvesting again for this year's crop.

I see that you live in Alaska! eace

Myself I live in an asparagus-growing region here in Germany. And I hope the new asparagus will appear soon.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Green asparagus give your pee a more interesting bouquet

Your spunk as well I am assured....for the sex who comes with spunk I mean....

 

[Hawkeye10]

I think I had white one time in Germany, and that I was not impressed, but I dont remember it.

Green I like a lot.

 

[Glitch]

I see that you live in Alaska! eace

Myself I live in an asparagus-growing region here in Germany. And I hope the new asparagus will appear soon.

Where in Germany do you live? I lived in Worms for a couple of years, and Bremerhaven for about 6 months back when Germany was still divided.

 

[Rexedgar]

Green asparagus give your pee a more interesting bouquet

So does a good single malt.......

 

[Rumpel]

I think I had white one time in Germany, and that I was not impressed, but I dont remember it.

Well I can't help it if you were not impressed.

 

[Rumpel]

Where in Germany do you live? I lived in Worms for a couple of years, and Bremerhaven for about 6 months back when Germany was still divided.

I live in the region of Baden-Baden, in the former Grand Duchy of Baden - now part of the Land Baden-Württemberg.

 

[Rumpel]

Maybe in the US one does not know who to treat and to cook white asparagus?

 

[Glitch]

I live in the region of Baden-Baden, in the former Grand Duchy of Baden - now part of the Land Baden-Württemberg.

I use to spend a lot of time in both Mannheim and Heidelberg when I lived in Worms. I still speak with a Bavarian accent, because that is where I learned to speak German. I wasn't even aware there were different dialects until I moved to Bremerhaven and people had a difficult time understanding me. Anyway, I lived there before I got into foraging or I would've spent more time in your forests.

 

[Rumpel]

I wasn't even aware there were different dialects until I moved to Bremerhaven and people had a difficult time understanding me. Anyway, I lived there before I got into foraging or I would've spent more time in your forests.

Yes, Dialects vary a lot in Germany.

May I introduce my own dialect?

Alemannic dialects are spoken by approximately ten million people in several countries:

Switzerland: all German-speaking parts of the country except Samnaun
Germany: center and south of Baden-Württemberg, Swabia, and certain districts of Bavaria
Austria: Vorarlberg, Reutte District of Tyrol
Liechtenstein: entire country
France: Alsace region (Alsatian dialect) and in some villages of the Phalsbourg county
Italy: Gressoney-La-Trinité, Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Issime, Alagna Valsesia and Rimella, in some other villages almost extinct
United States: Allen and Adams County, Indiana by the Amish there and also in their daughter settlements in Indiana and other U.S. states.
Venezuela: Colonia Tovar (Colonia Tovar dialect)

Alemannic German - Wikipedia

 

[Rumpel]

The asparagus season has come nearer.
Did anyone have an asparagus meal lately?

 

[Glitch]

The asparagus season has come nearer.
Did anyone have an asparagus meal lately?

Asparagus season is here. I have already been out and looking about. Nothing to harvest as yet, but here are signs that they are peaking through the snow. Give it another week and I will be rolling in asparagus and fiddlehead ferns. For about three weeks beginning in late-April or early-May is the best time to harvest wild asparagus and fiddlehead ferns in Alaska. By the end of May the asparagus is getting a bit woody, and the fiddlehead ferns have all unfurled. So it is a very small window to collect as much asparagus and fiddlehead ferns as I can.

 

[OldFatGuy]

Asparagus season is here. I have already been out and looking about. Nothing to harvest as yet, but here are signs that they are peaking through the snow. Give it another week and I will be rolling in asparagus and fiddlehead ferns. For about three weeks beginning in late-April or early-May is the best time to harvest wild asparagus and fiddlehead ferns in Alaska. By the end of May the asparagus is getting a bit woody, and the fiddlehead ferns have all unfurled. So it is a very small window to collect as much asparagus and fiddlehead ferns as I can.

Neither have strong shelf lives once harvested. Do you bother to preserve some, and if so how?

We had a large patch of wild asparagus that produced every early June abundantly at my place in Rhinebeck NY. They were likely a domesticated type from long ago, look like Jersey Giants. My first wife would brine them lightly and jar them for winter use. Local fiddle ferns didn't hold up with any storage form, not even freezing. They had to be consumed the day or day after harvest and showed up earlier in the spring. We had to beat the deer to both. Rabbits and other critters went after the fiddle ferns. Eventually I learned to spread coffee grinds around the asparagus patch and the areas where fiddle ferns grew. Kept most of the deer and critters away, good for the soil.

 

[Glitch]

Neither have strong shelf lives once harvested. Do you bother to preserve some, and if so how?

We had a large patch of wild asparagus that produced every early June abundantly at my place in Rhinebeck NY. They were likely a domesticated type from long ago, look like Jersey Giants. My first wife would brine them lightly and jar them for winter use. Local fiddle ferns didn't hold up with any storage form, not even freezing. They had to be consumed the day or day after harvest and showed up earlier in the spring. We had to beat the deer to both. Rabbits and other critters went after the fiddle ferns. Eventually I learned to spread coffee grinds around the asparagus patch and the areas where fiddle ferns grew. Kept most of the deer and critters away, good for the soil.

I blanche them for about a minute in rapidly boiling salted water, then put them in iced cold water so they stop cooking and retain their color. After that I dry them off, portion them out, put them in zip-lock bags, and toss them into the freezer. I found that both asparagus and fiddlehead ferns freeze very well. They both have very similar flavors as well. I also tend to go for the younger asparagus. The kind you find in grocery stores are at least 5+ years old. I like the younger, narrower, asparagus because it tend to be more tender. The asparagus I tend to harvest is between 1/4" and 1/2" thick and stand no taller than about 18" to 2 feet. I can just make out a few shoots pushing their way through the leaves and snow now, so it shouldn't be long before they are ready.

I do eat a lot of fresh greens during the Spring because, as you say, they do not freeze very well. The Palmer Hay Flats is a salt-water marsh just a couple miles from where I live where I get a lot of my sea greens and beach lovage. I was just there this morning foraging, and managed to get myself stuck. I did manage to find a few edibles, but not to the tune of the $120 it cost me to get my vehicle unstuck. The joys of a muddy Spring in Alaska.