Asparagus is amazing. It’s tough, grows in ditches, tastes incredible, grows quickly (once established), comes back year after year (perennial), has attractive foliage and winter interest, good raw or cooked, early Spring crop, nutritious, and it makes your pee smell.

Here are a couple of ways we have enjoyed asparagus lately.

• Raw with capers and mustard vinaigrette dressing
• On pizza with roasted garlic-white bean sauce (more of a paste really)
• Omelet with cheese
• Lightly steamed with pasta and olive oil
• On a grilled cheese sandwich (haven’t done this yet, but it sounds great)
• Just steamed, grilled, or raw with a bit of salt

What are we missing? Is there some kind of cream of asparagus soup recipe anyone enjoys? I also wonder about freezing asparagus – how well would it hold its flavor and texture? And so it is with everything we grow – always curious to know more.

It’s year three for our asparagus bed and it is producing some rather fat, yet still lovely stalks. We’ve been enjoying the flavor in salads, quiche, pasta, tacos, and on pizza. Asparagus is good just about anywhere.

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Everyone asks if I have a nice sharp knife for harvesting. I don’t have much anything nice, let alone sharp. And if I did have a knife for cutting the asparagus just below the soil as many suggest is the proper way to harvest, I’m sure it wouldn’t be near me when I happen to walk near the bed and decide to pick what needs picking. Perhaps that makes me a just-in-time gardener, or perhaps a serendipitous gardener. Whatever the name, since I am too inspired (or lazy) and feel the immediate need to harvest, I snap the asparagus as near to the soil as it will naturally snap.

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Of course now I am wondering if this has welcomed disease. Every so often, one of the fatter stalks appears to have suffered some kind of damage. The damage is minimal and usually appears like a stocking runner or vertical scar. This doesn’t seem to disrupt the taste at all. Other times, the stalk grows twisted and curly. I found reference to frost below the ground as a possible cause, but we haven’t had that kind of heavy frost for days. I’ve also read about the beet army worm, but I haven’t seen any and we are a bit more north than their preferred climate – at least for this time of year. So, I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s nothing.

It was amazing outside all weekend! And it still is. But I am exhausted. Oh, I took my fair share of breaks to soak in some of the Spring. Never jumped in the hammock though.  Might be because we don’t have a hammock. Plus I get a little sea sick.

There is so much going on in the garden now. Our tulips and daffodils are finally open in full and the Magnolia shrub is incredible. Peas are sprouting along with spinach, lettuce, radish and asparagus. Mmmm, asparagus. I worked at setting up tomato cages and support systems. Decided I might as well plant the cherry tomatoes. Also planted more peas, soy beans, carrots, fennel and zinnia seeds.

Amidst all that planting and preparing, Anne discovered a nice natural patch of trout lilies. I can’t say I had ever seen a trout lily before, much less one in bloom.

I managed to soak the new asparagus for a few hours this morning. Then I got digging again. I’m a little tired of digging. Nah, I love digging!! Planted two varieties of asparagus, one’s purple and the other is green. I could look up the actual variety names, but I’m feeling a little lazy, so let’s just leave it at purple and green.

While I was busy with asparagus, Anne finished planting the grapevines. We came up a little shy of our 100 ordered, but we can probably fill in with cuttings we made as they were planted. I didn’t hear Anne complain she didn’t have another couple vines to plant.

Other plantings that occurred today: Potatoes, Shallots, Leeks, a few Kohlrabi, Day Lilies, a few Peas, and several other items Anne relocated.

I didn’t take any pictures of the planting today, but I did take a picture of what I believe is an owl pellet (the white bits are bones of mice and such). Anne and Jake found it on a little walk in the woods next to our property. We had been hearing all sorts of hoo-hooing earlier this Spring. Never caught sight of the owl though.