Say hello to Cheryl, our new guest blogger, who will be taking over the Family Friday posts. Welcome to the FNC family!


Ask anyone what the harbingers of spring are and you will get some standard answers: the first crocus, a robin sighting, or those tiny green buds suddenly bursting forth from every tree overnight.

Ask any cook, foodie, or eater and you will get a myriad of answers: fiddleheads, rhubarb, ramps, baby spinach, green peas, and asparagus. For those of us in Canada it can be torture to wait for these first, fresh foods from our gardens and local farms. But oh, is it ever worth the wait.

Asparagus is the one food that I anxiously await as soon as the snow finally disappears on the Prairies. At this time of year I know those ferns are making their way up, ready to be snapped clean and packed for my plate within hours.

We are blessed with Alberta’s only commercial asparagus farm an hour away. Edgar Farms is a family run business with acres of carefully tended fields. They were told it couldn’t be done, but these fields are producing well. Demand is growing and more fields have been planted.

Visit the fields in spring and you might drive by the dirt with scraggly rows occupied by small snippets of green. It doesn’t look like much. But asparagus is handpicked right at the soil. Pick in one spot one day and tomorrow a few more shoots will be there again. By the end of June those same fields will be left to their own devices. By August the field is awash with green as the fern – did you know asparagus was a fern? – grows to replenish itself for next year’s production.

Picked right from the ground raw asparagus tastes like the colour green. Perhaps a little like a fresh pea, but really it is the taste of spring.

I prefer my asparagus grilled and tossed with a touch of balsamic vinegar. My girls love to eat it raw or lightly blanched with a blue cheese dip.

And oh, what about pizza? Regardless of the delivery method, I know that in May and June I will gladly eat asparagus every single day.

Cheryl is a mom to two energetic and strong-willed little girls.  It’s a good thing they already like her cooking.  She blogs the family’s cooking and taste adventures at Backseat Gourmet.

Related:

• Family Friday: Does Making Food More Fun Really Impress Your Kids?
• More Family Friday posts