My Pee Smells Funny

When we moved to the farm, back in 1907 one of the first things C wanted to do was to start a garden.  Even before he had picked a location and tilled up the ground he was buying plants.  The very first thing he planted was asparagus.  Writing this I now realize beginning gardeners starting with asparagus sounds either extremely confident, very elitist or just plain gay!  Whatever the case, it was the first thing to go in the ground.  A year or two later, it suffered the same fate as most things around here; we decided it was in the wrong place and moved it.  Considering it takes a long time to establish asparagus, and when you move it you basically start over I was surprised we ever got any results.  But, for several years now it’s had its place in the vegetable garden and the last couple of growing seasons we are finally reaping the rewards of fresh asparagus.  In fact, for about three weeks now we’ve been harvesting a bunch each day.  I’m on asparagus overload!  Which is a good thing. 

My favorite way to prepare and serve it is also the simplest.  After washing and snapping it, lay it out on a sheet pan, toss it with olive oil, course sea salt, freshly ground pepper, lemon zest and a squeeze or two of lemon juice and roast it until tender, but still crisp – about 10 minutes or so depending on the size of the stalks.  Then a couple of minutes before it’s done, I’ll hit it with a very generous amount of freshly grated parmesan cheese and stick it under the boiler just long enough for the cheese to slightly brown and form a thin crust.  Perfection. 

The asparagus crop will soon be ending and we’ll have to move on to the next item.  The lettuce seeds have just gone into the ground.  We usually have very good luck with lettuces.  Soon every meal will consist of some type of lettuce.  And of course being the over confident gay elitists we are, we plant a lot of arugula!