Wednesday 18 March 2015

Asparagus Harvest Begins!

Since I am spending as much time as possible in the garden, our well stocked freezer continues to nourish us. Today its offering is borscht with beef and onion dumplings.

The Polish version of borscht consists of a clear, ruby broth

This outstanding recipe was given to me by The Calm One's mother and can be found hereOur family tradition calls for making large, and I do mean large, dumplings!

That's a sliver of porcini mushroom on the lower left

Harvesting the asparagus was dutifully delayed for the last two seasons, because that time was needed to strengthen the plants which will allow abundant production for up to twenty years. However, the present picking will be limited to four weeks. Next spring it will go on for the full eight. Once simmered tender in a small amount of water in a skillet, the spears are sliced into pieces and added to scrambled eggs and pasta or just eaten by themselves with some help from butter and lemon juice. Their fresh taste is incomparable.


The emergence of the first seedlings is a major, smile-producing event for me. The tomato seeds sowed indoors about a week ago are now on that vigourous path that annual veggies embrace, going from a tiny seed to a plant producing its own seeds for the next generation.


Don't tell the chitted, early-season seed potatoes that their garden bed is not yet prepared!

Coloured sprouts occur in sunlight and are the ones required for producing more potatoes

Dirac the Kitten is eschewing, and therefore also not chewing, his favourite grey fleece blanket in lieu of one more attuned, colour-wise, to spring. 

He looks smashing next to pink and violet!

À la prochaine!

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How to plant asparagus

RELATED LINKS

Five ways to cook Asparagus
Wikipedia: It is believed most people produce the odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but only about 22% of the population have the autosomal genes required to smell them.