Spargel Zeit

I went to the store today and saw that they had asparagus on sale.  I was looking it over and was overjoyed to see that the stems were all less than the diameter of my pinky finger...but then not so overjoyed at the fact that the leaf buds on top were already opening.  There was a woman there about my mother's age that approached the asparagus that I was mulling over.  She said, "Oh, no, they're all tiny."

o_O

Obviously this woman is uneducated about spargel (that's German for "asparagus").

Now, it's spring, so it IS the best time to find good asparagus.  The best asparagus is white asparagus....

Well, let me back up.

Asparagus is a shoot- in other words, a stem.  Since we're not beavers, it's (I would think) pretty obvious that we'd want the younger, greener stems, not the harder, larger, wooden ones.  Since spring is when the plants awaken from their winter slumber, spring is the best time to find good, tender, small asparagus.  The delicacy version of asparagus is white asparagus; this is "created" when spargel farmers continue to pile dirt up over the stems as they break through the soil.  The lack of sunlight keeps these white; the moisture, support, and nutrients from the soil keep the stem soft, small, and full of flavor.

Now, I mention that the woman was my mother's age.  I remember my mother telling me that she always thought that she hated asparagus because, when she was young, she got served the hard, wooden parts.

While I find it hard to believe that anyone would PREFER the old stems to the younger, tender ones, I suppose you can't predict likes and dislikes...though I'm betting it's more that this woman grew up with the hard stuff, like my mother, and she doesn't know any better.