Asparagus coming soon

Cooley Family Farm has some asparagus beds and word is that soon the asparagus will be coming up.

 

http://cooleyfamilyfarm.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M6635

Is anyone seeing asparagus coming up yet? 

 

Now and then you see asparagus growing wild along roadsides.  As you are driving by you can recognize the butterscotch color of last year’s dead asparagus plant, the roots are still alive of course and soon they will send up the familiar shoots that you can collect and eat.  This is especially common along US 41 in Warren County.  Fifty years ago farmers here would contract with the Joan of Arc canning company in Hoopeston to grow fields of asparagus and it spread to the roadsides and it is still coming up there. 

Here is a picture of what last year’s asparagus looks like.  When you see these stop and look at the bottom, when the time is right the fresh sprouts come up here.

http://foragingpictures.com/plants/Wild_asparagus/