Asparagus

Asparagus has a relatively short season but is cultivated in every corner of the globe and with modern hygiene, packaging and transport methods and regulations it is available practically all year round. My preference would be for asparagus from Europe, America and Australia avoiding that produced in Asia which is often too thin, limp and light in both colour and flavour.

Asparagus is a very expensive vegetable due to the way it is grown and harvested. Once the bed of asparagus has been sown it will only produce its first edible crop in the third year and will only go on producing from the same bed for a few short seasons. The asparagus beds require a lot of maintenance and the crop is hand-harvested. White asparagus need even more work with the beds having to be built-up to protect the spears from exposure to light and again, have to be hand-harvested once they surface.