Asparagus - What is it?

• Asparagus is the herald of spring.
• It is the shoot of a feathery plant (Asparafus officinalis) which is a member of the lilly family.
• The part that we eat is the immature sprout that ranges in colour from white to green and purple depending on the variety and the method of growing.
• If it isn’t picked as a young sprout it will grow into a tall ferny plant with multiple branches and bright red berries.
• How it grows explains why it is often so expensive: For the first two years after sowing, a bed of asparagus is unproductive. In the third year the shoots are thick enough to sell. The bed then is productive for another two-three years after which quality declines. So at any given time a grower has half his land in an unsellable state.

Culinary history of asparagus

• Wild asparagus was loved by the ancient Greeks but it was the Romans who first cultivated it.
• The Emperor Augustus coined the phrase ‘velocius quam asparagi conquantur’, meaning to do something faster than you can cook asparagus.
• Julius Caesar first ate it in Lombardy and wanted it served with melted butter.
• King Louis XIV of France called asparagus ‘The King of Vegetables’.

Are there wild asparagus forms in South Africa?

• The asparagus that we tend to buy in the shop is the cultivated form of a variety that developed in Persia (indeed the word ‘asparag’ means shoot in the ancient Persian dialect) but there are wild asparagus forms all over the world. They are invariably much thinner stemmed and more feathery than the cultivated varieties.
• The most common South African wild variety is Asparagus rubicundus (also known as ‘Cat Briar’)
• Jan van Riebeeck found fine examples of wild asparagus ‘as good as anything in the homeland’ growing wild on the slopes of Table Mountain.
• Van Riebeeck so loved it that he pinched some off the mountain and grew wild asparagus in his garden.
• Louis Leipoldt wrote that there are several indigenous varieties in South Africa and that their flavour is so delicate that you should serve them only with butter and salt. Anything else will overwhelm it.
• Cecil Rhodes’ diary records buying bunches of local wild asparagus from the hawkers in Cape Town on the Grand Parade at a penny a bunch.
  

How do you choose good quality asparagus?

• Choose firm, crisp stalks of an even thickness with tightly closed tips.
• The finer the stem the more intense the flavour.
  

How do you prepare and cook asparagus?

• Rinse well – it can be quite gritty.
• Young asparagus needs only to have the woody lower stem portions snapped off but older thicker more fibrous stems may need peeling up to the tip.
• Steam (you do get poncy asparagus steamers but they aren’t really necessary) or boil for approximately 6 minutes until tender but still firm. Obviously cooking time differs by thickness.
• Old fashioned cooks tend to bind asparagus with a string into bunches which allows the asparagus stems to be in water boiling and the tips to steam out of the water. But really that’s not necessary.
• Whether boiling or steaming do not add the asparagus until the water is boiling vigorously.
• You can also roast it – often blanched first and then roasted drizzled with olive oil. The roasted spears are cooked when you can pierce the thick part of the stalk with a knife (about 10 minutes).