Two of my favorite events occur toward the end of April. The first one is my birthday, although, in Sharon World, it’s always my birthday! The second, and more important, is the start of asparagus harvesting season!
I was so excited when the previous owners told us that they had an established asparagus patch on the farm. Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables and growing my own has been something I’ve truly enjoyed about living on the farm. As soon as it warms up enough I plan to add to it this year so we get at least double.
While I understand that getting the bed established can take patience, keeping one going has required very little effort on my part. I go out to the garden in early April in remove the dead ferns from the previous year and wait. The patch starts to produce shoots around the 3rd week of April and continues til about the 3rd week of May. I just check daily for shoots that are 6″ to 8″ high and cut them just below the soil. When I’ve collected enough I set aside an hour or 2 to get it ready for the freezer.
Before freezing my bounty I need to blanch it. Blanching will not only clean the stalks but protect nutrients, seal in flavor and bring out beautiful color.
First, I trim off the ends and sort the stalks into like-size groups. This will allow the pieces to blanch evenly.
After all the stalks are trimmed I rinse them well to remove as much dirt as possible.
Then I boil the stalks for just a few minutes, 2 or 3 minutes for the thinner stalks, 4 minutes for thicker ones. You can literally see the the stalks turn to a bright green as they boil.
Remove the asparagus from the boiling water and immediately plunge it into an ice bath to stop the cooking process as quickly as possible.
After the stalks are cool lay them out in a single layer on cookie sheets covered with paper towels and blot off as much water as possible. Place them in the freezer for about an hour until frozen.
Place the stalks in freezer bags still sorted by size so they will cook evenly at a later time. You can mark the date on the bag if you wish but it won’t last long enough at my house to worry about it! Enjoy!
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