An Ode to Asparagus Adoration

Carolyn & Virginia Planting Tomatoes

Asparagus season is here and my gratitude for the mysterious green spears cannot be overstated. There’s so much to love about asparagus. It’s an odd plant, starting as a tangle of brown roots, buried deep in a furrow and after a couple of years of small harvests, a generation of stalks shoot up, often magically growing six inches in a day! Like clockwork, April to June we can savor one of the finest delicacies on Earth.

But the real reason I adore asparagus is because of the friendship I’ve enjoyed with a man and his mom, who by my account grow the best darn asparagus you’ll ever taste. Clark Blackwell and his mother, Virginia, have been growing and harvesting asparagus in Northumberland County for years.

Clark is my closest farming friend. We talk most days in the growing months. Quick catch-ups about the weather, what we can expect over the next couple of hours or days. We talk irrigation, bugs, fertilizers, deer and how we’ll savor our down time when it finally arrives.

Clark is efficiency in motion. He taught me how to keep on working when someone stops by for a chat. He’s quick to share what he’s learned or to pass on catalogs, phone numbers, research. He likes Earl Grey in the morning and Formula One racing on rainy Sundays. His farm is impeccable and I am sick with envy over it.

Last year Clark asked if I’d help plant tomatoes and you’d thought I won the lottery. Sitting low in the seat hanging off the back of the tractor, I was so nervous. When the tractor kicked into gear, Virginia let out a giggle, ‘now it’s time to start talking dirty.’ In her mid-eighties she moved two to one over my pace plugging those tiny plants in the ground. We planted 800 tomatoes that afternoon and while I didn’t dare break concentration, Virginia filled me up with local gossip and growing tips.

There’s so much to say about asparagus and so much to be thankful for ~ friends and farming. Let me know if you share the love of asparagus, have a special way of preparing it or if you’ve found a secret wild asparagus patch that you raid. For all of us who adore the green spears, enjoy it while you can, it’ll be gone before we know it.

As always, thanks for stopping by, Carolyn