Definitely green, I find the white so visually unappealing! eat it as soon as I pull it from the oven – so it rarely makes it to the table, hahahaha! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In Italy it’s grown in the north, especially around Vincenza. Here in California our asparagus season is somewhat longer, but it is most likely grown in greenhouses, not like on the land like in France. The first time I had white asparagus was almost a year ago as asparagus season started in France. The stalk snapped and broke off at three inches. Your email address will not be published. © 2019 French Garden House | All Rights Reserved |Privacy Policy, © 2020 French Garden House | All Rights Reserved |Privacy Policy. There is such sensual pleasure working with it.”, The French claim to have cultivated asparagus (color uncertain) as early as the Renaissance. How could something so revered here, such a part of the French table, of French history and culture, be met with such indifference in America? I know they say the thicker stalks of asparagus are better, but I found the white asparagus just a little too thick for my preference. My host for this journey was Jean Coussau, the third-generation chef and owner of Relais de la Poste, the two-star Michelin restaurant and hotel in Magescq. Thank you! MAGESCQ, France — I have come to regard it as the asparagus paradox. Two other workers in rubber aprons and boots worked an assembly line in a damp warehouse with a wet floor. In France, Germany and other pockets of Europe, it is not green but white asparagus, plump and shiny, that heralds the arrival of spring. White asparagus has been trialled in supermarkets in recent years but the best quality will be found at farmers’ markets or organic supermarkets during its season of April to June. Jeanne, Thin asparagus wins out I think, Jane and Jeanne! It is pure. Our host was the three-star Michelin chef Yannick Alléno. Along the way, the taste gets stronger; more acidic and less sweet. Your email address will not be published. At the moment, a lot of what is available is still from France (especially the strawberries) but the first devilishly expensive German strawberries are also hitting the markets and it will be no time at all before there are Spargel stands on every corner. Back in Magescq with a treasure trove of white asparagus he would prepare for lunch, Mr. Coussau and I toured Relais de la Poste, a weekend refuge set in a pine forest, with a beehive, a small vineyard (the wine cellar consists of four barrels) and an orchard (including apple, cherry, fig, pear, plum, peach and wild nut trees). Shake the pan, toss some sea salt & pepper on it, “They weren’t there yesterday,” said Francis Lalanne of the unwelcome spikes. about 20 minutes. I’ve also gone fancy on Easter and wrapped it in prosciutto and puff pastry. Bassano del Grappa, province of Vicenza, is located at the base of Mount Grappa on the Brenta River, just one hour by train from Venice and boasts a fine asparagus season which runs from April through May. I have nothing to offer except to say that we lose money on them.”, The first time I set out to harvest white asparagus, I was issued a harvesting tool that looked like a long two-pronged screwdriver and told to go out into the fields and feel the “vibrations.”. Transfer to a casserole dish and brush with olive oil. As soon as the furled tips are touched by the sun, they produce chlorophyll and turn color — from mother-of-pearl ivory to lavender-rose to purple to green. Manet painted the white version with purple tips; Proust praised it in “Swann’s Way.” (“What fascinated me would be the asparagus, tinged with ultramarine and rosy pink which ran from their heads, finely stippled in mauve and azure, through a series of imperceptible changes to their white feet, still stained a little by the soil of their garden-bed: a rainbow-loveliness that was not of this world.”). In fact, the town is the centre of Italy when it comes to white asparagus. Commission and the United States, by … it starts around April and goes to about mid June for! Straight up the harvesting season, among the ( clean ) gravel and in United., rather than seducing best boiled until it hit something hard time 'd! Excited he created a dish before my eyes States Department of Agriculture do not even keep data on.. Do not even keep data on it of Agriculture do not even keep data on it Versailles hothouses round. 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