First Asparagus Harvest!

Today, after creating, planting and tending our asparagus field, here is our very first asparagus harvest!

We planted a half acre of Jersey Knight and Purple Passion asparagus in the Spring of 2013.  Like most perennials, asparagus can’t be harvested right away — it needs time to develop its root system.

That time was up this morning!  After walking the dogs and feeding the chickens, I grabbed my gear (pictured here) and went to the asparagus field.

Gear included a food-safe produce tote with ice at the bottom and a linen dishtowel to keep the asparagus cool after harvesting, a sharp knife and a plastic 6 inch ruler from the Republican Committee of Chester County that two friends gave me at a Phoenixville street festival.  Asparagus should be harvested at 6 inches long (and as short as 4 inches on a warm day) so having a flexible, yet sturdy ruler to quick check spear lengths was very helpful.

Harvesting asparagus means walking down the rows and looking for spears that are at least 4 inches tall.  Right now, everything is harvested, regardless of diameter, so the plant roots will put energy into making more spears, rather than leafing out the spears it had already put up.

After an hour and a half, here was the harvest:

The Purple Passion are easier to see.  Here’s how they cleaned up:

For the next four weeks, I’ll be walking the asparagus field every morning to see if there are any spears ready to harvest.  There is nothing better than fresh asparagus — I had raw asparagus for lunch and Frank munched on steamed asparagus for dinner.

Asparagus can be purchased at the farm — just contact me for details.

Meanwhile, here’s a completely gratuitous photo of the magnolia tree at the corner of our property.  Spring is really here!