This is what I should have been listening to as I made tonno e fagioli yesterday morning but there is no CD player in the kitchen. I have ordered one and it will be delivered today.
Instead I listened to Das Rheingold recorded last year at Opéra Bastille, on Radio 3 catch-up; bratwurst would have been a more appropriate receipt. But man cannot live on beans and Wagner so I bought asparagus from a Norfolk farm and some top-notch butter as a starter.
It is almost the end of the season. Come hell or high water harvesting stops at the Summer solstice – 21st June. Asparagus has been cultivated in Britain since Roman times. Andy Allen, owner of Portwood, is refreshingly candid about how it’s grown on his farm.
“There is no great secret to how we grow it, as it simply requires deep, free-draining, light soil, no shade, good weed control and patience! At Portwood Farm, we feel we have the perfect soil, not just to grow asparagus but to ensure its distinctive flavour, which marks it out and keeps customers coming back for more.
You can’t be greedy when growing asparagus – after planting, you need to wait three years before you can cut a single spear. And you must always stop cutting on 21st June to let the asparagus grow into fern to allow photosynthesis during the sunny summer months which puts energy back into the crown (roots) ready for the following year’s harvest.
The crowns are planted in ridged “beds”. After the previous year’s fern growth has died back and dried out, in the winter we mulch the old fern, and then build up the ridges again in early spring to aid drainage. Then we wait until the soil has warmed up sufficiently for the crown to push up the first of the season’s succulent spears – which is usually around 1 May for open field crops and 1 April for the beds which we have selected to protect under small polythene tunnels.”
We had it in our fingers with melted butter – the only way to eat asparagus.
One of England’s last, inviolate seasonal delicacies and worth the horror of one’s housemaid…