Asparagus

Asparagus! I got so excited I hopped around whooping and hollering in my backyard garden! Almost as excited as Mio swinging around on the akebi vines.

Poking through the thick, leafy winter mulch they were practically camouflaged. Now two weeks later they are about a foot tall already. One year down, two to go until we can get a decent harvest.

I remember the first time I saw asparagus growing in a garden, in my Grandpa's backyard. He picked a chubby, purply white shoot, barely poking through the straw, and told me to eat it raw. Delicious!

Then a few years later my Mom borrowed a long-ignored garden bed from our neighbor Margaret (she has a knack for acquiring bits and pieces of garden from the neighbors, so she can plant extra vegetables) and plugged it full of asparagus crowns. Now, a good five years later, she and my Dad are feasting on it.

We've got a few more years before we'll get to taste it, but already it's looking much stronger and bigger than the "2nd year" seedlings they're selling at the store. So don't be afraid to start it from seed in the springtime, as long as you're planting in rich soil-- much cheaper than buying crowns. Yesterday I had the wwoofers plant four flats of it to set out this fall in our forest garden.