New Start

 

Out of focus, it might not look like much but for me, it is a sign of hope and a new start. That is one of the first sprigs of asparagus growing up out of my new plot. I had to dig it out a bit as it was still buried a bit under the mulch, but it is definitely there. For reference, it is about an inch tall and not much bigger than the lead of a pencil in diameter.

Growing up, my parents sent my brother and I out to search the old fence rows for wild asparagus. There we would maybe pick a couple handfuls of few times every spring for consumption. The problem with that method, was it is hard to spot in fence rows growing with every kind of weed, grass, and tree sprout you can imagine so we probably missed more than we picked. It also had to be quite tall before we could see it above everything else and so was a bit tougher to eat. 

I remember my parents planting a bed of asparagus in the yard of our old farm house. Although I could probably still find it's location within a few feet to this day, I'm not sure it ever grew. I have no memories of picking asparagus there, other than from fence rows. 

After we moved to the farm where my grandfather had lived, a mile to the north, I don't recall planting any asparagus there either. But sometime after I left for college or perhaps exited college for the "real" world, they did plant another bed of asparagus in-between the two garden plots that they rotated between for the rest of their vegetables. That bed did grow and did prosper. 

It produced so much asparagus that there was more than my parents could eat or my family could eat. When in season, it was like all of Bubba's shrimp recipes in the movie Forest Gump. We had asparagus in everything. After Mom died and we took over the gardens and expanded things, we definitely had a lot more asparagus than we could eat, even though production was slowing down due to old age. I turned towards preserving the extra and settled on brining them like pickles. I would make spicy and regular batches and we would eat them as sides to our meal all year long. 

Near as we can recollect, that asparagus bed is probably close to 25 years old, well beyond the average life expectancy of 15 years. Still, when we gave up those gardens and started over behind our house, I knew that asparagus bed would be the one thing I would miss the most out of all the vegetables, fruits and berries we grew there. Fortunately, I still have a lot of pickled asparagus on the canning shelves but I knew that somehow, we would have to start another bed ourselves.

As I posted not long ago, the crowns I ordered, a dozen purple and a dozen green, came in way late and went into the ground in pretty rough shape. I did add quite a bit of amendments and tilled it as deep as I could but I was very worried that all would be for naught. I soaked the crowns for a half hour or so, planted them and then mulched over them to prevent the soil from drying out so quickly. Every day when I walk by to check on the garden and the greenhouse, I cast my eyes across the mulch looking for signs of life. 

Today I dug into the much a bit and found what I was looking for. Hopefully by the spring of 2026, we will be able to harvest asparagus from our backyard.