FLOWER POT KITCHEN: PLANTING AND GROWING ASPARAGUS

15 Apr 2018

PLANTING AND GROWING ASPARAGUS

Self Sufficient Living

Another notch to our self sufficient life is the addition of two Asparagus beds, very easy and not complicated at all to grow, I don't know why I've had a irrational fear of growing asparagus, one of my top seasonal treats and as April, May is our lean self sufficient months with purple broccoli just blooming, leeks coming to the end, still an abundance of spinach, winter landcress and salads along with the last of the kale and stored goods it's a beautiful jewel in the crown to be provided with such a gorgeous vegetable.

With some a good garden care and some self restraint for the first two or three years these beds should give us 20 years of asparagus throughout April and May annually, a wonderful extra vegetable supplement to our lives.

I have brought one year old organic crowns so that we could jumpstart the length of time to harvest, as a rule the asparagus crowns need three years to set up, if you harvest asparagus before this maturing age you lessen the annual yield, your asparagus spears will be skinny and the crown may not produce as long.

It is so hard not to cut the beautiful thick gorgeous looking spears in year two! But don't! However as each crown produces multiple spears you can take one spear from each crown only once as a special treat giving you a few portions in year two, but don't be greedy, I know it's hard but waiting to year three means you are investing in high thick spears for future yields, with longevity you'll be glad of the effort to abstain.

Year One To Plant The Crowns

I prepped my beds for over (October time) winter and dug in mushroom compost and allowed this to mulch down in to the soil beds. Dig nice deep and wide trenches so that the roots of the crowns can spread out comfortably.

Generously space the crowns around 30cm apart, the fill the earth back in over the crowns. I'm not so sure about the raised earthed up trenches that most people use to grow their asparagus, I have made my trenches deeper instead, this we will see if I'm wrong in year two 2018's growth!

Year Two 2018

So excited to see the first asparagus spear appear in early April, it's been a harsh wet winter here in the UK and very little sun so I was pleasantly surprised that our asparagus bed was up and running so quickly as soon as spring had arrived even if the sun and weather had not.

10 days after seeing the first 2" spear I was sitting enjoying a cup of tea in the garden chatting with the chickens when I suddenly spotted the asparagus bed and it made me leap of my seat, calling my husband to come and see the full outbursts of life!

So now the cook in me is thinking a special very first cook with theses precious jewels should be with our home churned butter, poached eggs from our ladies and dressed in a buttery hollandaise sauce with a fresh lemon drizzle from our friends lemon tree.

First Cooked Asparagus Food Photo Comming...

Growing The Asparagus On

Leave the asparagus to do its own thing, this is important, your plants should end up around 4-5ft tall and be all wispy like fennel tops, this is great, when October arrives the plant should look like it's dying back and the shafts will start to go yellow and brittle, at this point if you tug on the shafts the fern like growth should just pull out, that's all it takes annually to care for this majestic vegetable.

Roll On Year Three!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.