Asparagus is populated with antioxidants and other substances that have been shown to prevent tumors and cancers, especially lung cancer, cervical cancer, colon and rectal cancer. Furthermore, it contains the rutin and glutathione that are very important in healing blood and liver vessels. Beside that, it is very rich in folic acid, which is essential for a healthy cardiovascular system. Folic acid is also important in pregnancy because it prevents birth defects. Eating asparagus has benefits in preventing symptoms of PMS, e.g. premenstrual swelling and bloating.

Another value of asparagus are diuretic and alkaline properties. That induces cleansing the body by simulating urination and helps prevent or dissolve kidney stones. This can cause strange smell of urine, but don’t worry, it just means that your kidneys functioning very well.

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Ingredients (4 persons)

10.5 ounces of wild asparagus
14 ounces of shrimp tails
2 vegetable cubes
2.8 ounces of onion
2 tablespoons of olive oil
10.5 ounces of rice
2 tablespoons white wine
half a lemon
salt
sugar
1 tablespoon of sliced mint

Preparation

1. Cut of the thick asparagus parts and put the tops in boiling water, in which you previously added a bit of salt and sugar. Cook them on low heat for about 5 minutes, and then take them out and drain them.

2. Fry chopped onion on olive oil and add washed rice. Fry altogether shortly, add vegetable cubes and pour with one cup of water.

3. Fry for about 5 minutes while occasionally adding water (about one cup). Then add shrimp tails, asparagus, wine and lemon juice. Fry it altogether for 10 more minutes.

Serving

Arrange the risotto on warm plates and sprinkle with freshly sliced mint.

Tip

After the risotto is cooked, stir in 3/4 ounces of butter.

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How to Dehydrate or Dry Asparagus

Pick asparagus when they are dry because moisture can be appear between leaves and cause mold. Divide the leaves into small bunches, and tie each bunch with an elastic band. String or wire are not good, as the shrinking of the stems as they dry can cause falling out of their tie on to the floor, making damage! Hang the bunches upside down in an airy and warm place (up to 55 degrees Celsius), preferably in the dark or in low light. Strong light will bleach out the beautiful green color. You must assure plenty of room for air circulation to prevent mold forming and to speed up the drying process. You can tell when they are dry by carefully flexing them. If they don’t break they are not ready yet.

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During the ’60s it was commercially grown in California, but now it can be found in cans or as a pricey, fresh import during a few short months when it is harvested, from late April to early June.
California growers stop producing the white asparagus because it is highly labor-intensive crop so producers from Taiwan took over the industry due to their much lower labor costs.

White asparagus is also called the king of darkness because it grows underground and sometimes it is even referred to as white gold. It is special for how it is produced. It is cultivated by depriving the plants light. The plant is covered with dirt while growing to keep it in the dark. That way the plant cannot produce chlorophyll so the stalks don’t get their green color and remain white. This process of growing white asparagus is called etiolation.

So what effect does this process of production have on its flavor? Well, the white asparagus is slightly bitter, but tender, fibreless, soft and more delicate than the green one.

White asparagus requires more concern when it comes to preparation and storage. The chefs suggest storing it with the tips up in 3 inches of water with a little sugar, for three days maximum.
When preparing the spears for cooking, you can use the potato peeler to peel of the woody pulp and hard skin. Around 30% of the spear would be peeled but it can be used for making a soup.

Technorati Tags: etiolation, growing white asparagus, spargle, white asparagus

Ingredients

1,5 lbs Asparagus
1 lbs potatoes
1,5 oz smoked bacon
lemon juice
6,5 oz cream
a little parsley, salt and pepper

Preparation

Cook the asparagus, cut and dry them.
Cook the potatoes in the water from the asparagus, drain them and mix with a mixer when they cool down. Add chopped asparagus, chopped and fried bacon, salt and pepper, and lemon juice to taste.
Mix the cream and add it to the soup along with parsley.

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Asparagus crops

Originally uploaded by Asparagus

I was looking at some asparagus photos on my flickr account and it reminded me of our spring harvest. You can see one of those pics here, and you can search on Flickr for a few more. I also wanted to see how does the photo blogging from Flickr work. Well, it works fine, although the post looks a bit ugly

Jersey King

This is an all-male hybrid, and as such it is a great choice for home growing.
All-male hybrids produce more harvestable spears and they show resistance to some common fungal asparagus diseases.

- all male hybrid
- adapts to almost any climate
- best harvested when they are around 7 inches tall.
- stalks are not thin, they have medium size diameter at harvest time
- easy to grow in humus composted soil

Jersey Knight

- all male hybrid
- Grow in poor salty or alkaline soil
- highly productive
- stalks are more thiner than the Jersey King
- longer than Jersey King
- hardy even in sub zero weather

Jersey Giant

- all male hybrid
- good choice for cold climate, but will adjust easy to others
- large spear size, thicker than the Jersey King or Knight
- resists fusarium wilt, crown rot and rust
- prominent flavor
- produce few less spears than the Jersey King

Purple Passion

- adopt well to any climate
- thicker than the Jersey King, Knight or Supreme, but smaller than the Jersey Giant
- generally much more tender than the green varieties
- spears are purple at harvest, but when cooked they loose thier purple color
- This variety has a 20% higher sugar content and is often eaten raw
- mild, nutty flavor

Mary Washington

- standard variety for home or commercial planting
- female variety
- resistant to rust
- excellent taste
- tasty spears are dark green with purple color at the tips
- it does not do well if summers are extremely hot and long and winters are mild

Technorati Tags: asparagus growing, asparagus varieties, growing asparagus, jersey giant, jersey King, jersey knight, mary washington, purple passion

This book from Charles Ilot is a classic. It is written in 1901, but information it provides is still relevant and useful.
It covers cultivation of asparagus and related vegetables, as well as chapters on the history, decorative uses, and cookery of these vegetables.

You can check it out online on google books.
Here is the link:
http://books.google.hr/books?id=EE0_JQAh-UsC&lpg=PA33&ots=0nlR7W10pw&dq=%22asparagus%20growing%22%20book&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q=&f=false

If you like it, you can order a hard copy on Amazon!

Technorati Tags: asparagus, asparagus book, asparagus cultivation, asparagus growing, growing asparagus

Preparation time: 01:20:00

Ingredients (for 4-6 persons)
For dough:
250 g wheat flour
120 g butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon sour cream
salt

For stuffing:
300 g asparagus
1 teaspoon sugar
10 g butter
pepper
nutmeg
1 parsley spring onion
250 g gourd
3 tablespoons olive oil
200 ml cream
2 eggs
2 egg yolk

Preparation

1. Add sliced butter to wheat floor and mix it with electric mixer. Then add egg, sour cream, little salt and and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, and comes easily away from the work surface. Shape the dough into a ball, cover it with aluminum foil and leave on a cold place for at least one hour.

2. Meanwhile, peel the asparagus and cut off the woody ends. Then put asparagus spears into a vessel filled with boiling salted water, add sugar and butter. Cook them for 5 minutes, then take them out and dry them.

3. Peel the spring onion, wash it and slice it. Wash the gourd and slice it.

4. Knead the dough briefly, put it in a pie mold and prick bottom of dough all over with a fork.

5. Fry onion and gourd on olive oil, add some pepper.

6. Mix it with cream, eggs and egg yolk, then add pepper and nutmeg.

7. On half-baked dough sort onion, asparagus and gourd, then cover it with the stuffing.

8. Bake for around 15 to 20 minutes.

Serving

Slice the pie and serve it as a appetizer.

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Using Fertilizer for Growing Asparagus — powered by eHow.com

Video Transcript
“Now that we’ve got our asparagus fern planted and watered, you may consider after they germinate, you see some green growth coming which will take as much as 10 weeks consider some fertilizer. It can be a foilier soil treatment or transplant type fertilizer. This is an organic that I use. It is liquid and it is easily mixed with the water that you water the plants with. All you are going to do between the time we planted these and the time they actually come up is keep the soil moist. You don’t need to keep them wet. But I wouldn’t worry about putting fertilizer on them until you actually see some green growth because your fertilizer is really not going to do a whole lot good until the plant is putting up green growth. It is making conceivably headway under the ground but it is not going to make much use of fertilizer especially additional fertilizer until the plants goes to putting up green leaves and performs a photosynthesis that is when fertilization becomes more important. “

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