Stalking the wild asparagus

When I was a young boy on a farm in Northern Italy, the wild asparagus was a must-do of our seasonal wild harvests, we had our spots that we kept ‘secret’, at the edges of the fields and around the old derelict buildings that litter the Italian countryside, and we were sure not to miss the very short season. You only have three/four weeks for these plants, as what you want is the young shoots, before they start flowering. If it was a wet spring there would be basket-full of them, but they would move fast, so if you diddle-daddle, you would come home with only a handful of tender, sweet, crunchy ones. Good reason to get up early and timely.

Here in Australia, we have wild edible asparagus naturalised in SE Queensland, inland NSW, ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, SE South Australia, and SW Western Australia.

You will find them along the country roads, at the edge of fields, and along fence lines where there is less grazing happening and where it can enjoy the water run-offs. If you know what you’re looking for, you will spot last year’s growth, kind of dry feathery stalks, check at the base of such bushes you will spot the new shoots.

HOW TO HARVEST WILD ASPARAGUS

The best way to harvest is by hand, as in, you feel the stalk, and where it seems crunchy, you snap it. If it snaps it means that it is perfect. Usually, that leaves about 10-20cm of stalks in the ground and by harvesting the new shoots it will promote more growth. This plant grows from year to year, and some gardeners say that the older the root, the bigger the asparagus.?

Wild asparagus does not have a great shelf life, which means that you should only harvest what you are going to eat for the next couple of days, as otherwise, they would waste away. Even if you wrap them in a wet towel, and store them in the crisper, you will not get more than 5 days out of them. Please harvest ethically. There is no point for you to fill your bag if you are not going to manage to eat them in time.?

Leave the rest for others.

Enjoy your country ride and say thank you to the abundance of nature.

More info and recipes from my website here>

#gratitude #forage #foraging #edible #asparagus #asparagusofficinalis #Australia #springtime