Asparagus season & seasoning

This is asparagus (Asparagus) season in the upper Midwest, so best take advantage of it.  Find a local source and get it very fresh. When it's growing quite fast, the amount of the stem that's edible is optimal. Fibers mature from the base upward, and fast growing stems leave the maturation zone behind.  Then don't over cook it; the Phactors recommend steaming because it's fast and easy to control. Lastly, and this is a very serious suggestion, smother it with avocado butter (recipe here).  Easy to make & delicious!
It was part of our Eostre dinner that was most appreciated after raking countless buckets of leaves out of our perennial gardens. This is earlier than the Phactors usually are so hopefully the plants appreciated it.  When you get all the old stuff out of the way you can more easily see what the baby bunnies are eating (Actually it was dandelions, so yea!). But just in case a lot of bunny exclusion cages were moved from shrubbery to emerging perennials (tastiest stage!). Or just grow wolfbane/monkshood (Aconitum); it's one of the first plants to emerge in the spring (and last perennial in our gardens to flower, sometime in October), and nothing, nothing eats it!  It's toxicity is famous.  Wait, this blog started out about good stuff and then turned to bunny fodder and poisonous plants.  Sorry!

Can I eat garlic mustard?

Yes, please eat it all.  Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a horribly invasive weed. TPP must make the rounds of our estate two or three times a spring to keep the garlic mustard at bay; it invades from an un-kept preserve next door. It's a biennial taking two seasons to go from seed to seed. And, yes, especially when young the leaves are edible; they have a nice peppery garlicy flavor that would probably go quite well in wilted salad or in a pesto.  A young person asked about this.  They are fascinated with the idea of foraging for edibles. So, why not collect it and eat it?  Basically, it isn't that good that it's worth it.  Think about this. The plant is native to Europe where agriculture has been practiced for a few millenia.  The plant has long been collected as a culinary herb. The really good food plants have been domesticated and are grown at least in some places for food. But not garlic mustard. Our ancestors are telling us something, but by all means collect all the garlic mustard you want. TPP would recommend collecting along a section of a walking/biking trail built on an abandoned railway line. The banks of this trail abound (too weak), are a dense, weedy, morass of garlic mustard, and all these jogger/biker types zoom/zoom-zoom by thinking (?), isn't nature wonderful?  All the botanist sees is a mess of invasive weeds, and enough peppery, garlicy greens to choke the population of Chi-town.  
Understand TPP is not opposed to foraging.  Back in the poor graduate student days TPP foraged the country side for asparagus. Clumps grew along fences in the grassy margins of maize fields, so you could ride your bike along and harvest some spears returning home with a nice veggie for din-dins. The spears were hard to see in the tall grass, so TPP would bend a discarded can (all too common) over the fence to mark the spot when the asparagus shoots were tall and easily seen so you could find the young shoots next spring. This worked well until someone figured out the marking system and foraged earlier. So TPP does not intend to discourage foraging per se, but does have a thing about invasive plants and people's insensitivity to them. One friend says she can no longer walk in woods because she can't stop pulling garlic mustard or honeysuckle seedlings.  

Asparagus - one of the best things about spring

Asparagus, when properly planted, is about as fool-proof as any plant can be. Never had any troubles with red raspberries before, but this winter and the bunnies beat the crap out of them, and while they will recover, this year's crop may be pretty slight. But asparagus always comes through, and how better to celebrate a weekend of early season gardening than to feast on it. In this case, nice young asparagus shoots quickly sauted in a bit of olive oil with green onions splashed with balsamic vinegar and topped with shaved asiago cheese. Oh yes, there was a bit of marinated, grilled lamb and some dilled potatoes.

Know your genera - Lesson 1: Asparagus

Asparagus. How easy is that? You thought botanical Latin names were so difficult, but you have been using some of them all along. Starting with asparagus seems logical alphabetically, but it's also spring, and nothing, nothing is better, and nothing, nothing says spring more than fresh asparagus.

You will probably have to work on pronunciation a bit. The last syllable should probably use an oo vowel sound, so goose instead of gus.

Asparagus is one of the pleasures of the northern temperate zone, but if you want a taste treat to treat, complement this vegetable with a bit of the tropics and have the best of both worlds.

Here's a gastronomic suggestion. Top your lightly steamed asparagus (please do not tell the Phactor you boil it) with a generous dollop of avocado butter.

Avocado butter recipe: 1/2 cup soft butter (1 stick), 1 ripe avocado diced, 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice, 2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley, 2 tsp worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp finely minced garlic (1 small clove), and a good dash of Tabasco sauce. Combine in a mixer, place in a covered container and cool to firm up. It will last a week or so fresh in the fridge. It can be frozen and chunks cut off for use if you give it enough time to defrost.