The White Asparagus Season

2020-05-29 09:25 by Mark Chapman

White asparagus is referred to as «white gold» or «edible ivory», even as «the royal vegetable». It is believed to be less bitter and much more tender compared to green asparagus. Freshness is very important, and the lower ends of white asparagus must be peeled before cooking or raw consumption. To cultivate white asparagus, the shoots are covered with soil as they grow; without exposure to sunlight, no photosynthesis starts, and the shoots remain white.

White asparagus is locally cultivated and very popular in Europe and western Asia. During the «asparagus season» between late April to the end of June, the produce is sold in supermarkets, roadside stands and open-air markets.

Only seasonally on the menu, asparagus dishes are advertised outside many restaurants. For the French style, asparagus is often boiled or steamed and served with Hollandaise sauce. Tall, narrow asparagus cooking pots allow the shoots to be steamed gently, their tips staying out of the water.

Some historic notes from Wikipedia: Asparagus has been used as a vegetable owing to its distinct flavour, and in medicine due to its diuretic properties and its purported function as an aphrodisiac. It is pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC. In ancient times, it was also known in Syria and in Spain. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter. A recipe for cooking asparagus is given in one of the oldest surviving collections of recipes (Apicius's third-century BC De re coquinaria, Book III).

By 1469, asparagus was cultivated in French monasteries. Asparagus appears to have been little noticed in England until 1538, and in Germany until 1542.

Asparagus was brought to North America by European settlers at least as early as 1655. Adriaen van der Donck, a Dutch immigrant to New Netherland, mentions asparagus in his description of Dutch farming practices in the New World. Asparagus was grown by British immigrants as well; in 1685, one of William Penn's advertisements for Pennsylvania included asparagus in a long list of crops that grew well in the American climate.

German botanical illustration of asparagus – Wikipedia

Here are some dishes I prepared with the delicacies: