Cooking Floyd: Dark Days Challenge: March, Week 17

We've been experiencing summer temperatures and spring rains all at the same time here in Floyd.  I've been desperate to get the cool season crops in but the rains have been spaced just far enough apart to ensure that the ground is too wet to till and the weather is warming up fast, almost too fast for cole crops and peas, and some greens.  Michael's weather station has been telling us night time temps have been ranging between 45F-55F.  That's nearly warm enough at night for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants!

But I have been getting some things in and yesterday the weed wacker and I set to work reclaiming the herb beds.  Days when I'm running full out I rely on last summer's preserves for our evening meal.

Preserving Floyd: Asparagus 2 Ways

Michael put in our asparagus bed this year.  It was much more complicated then I thought it would be.  Previously I'd inherited asparagus beds that came with other houses, or lived near a particularly bountiful patch of wild asparagus and foraged, or received bagfuls from friends with overproducing beds.  After double digging a two foot deep trench, hilling the bottom, placing the asparagus crowns, screening the soil back over the crowns, and doing it all in between downpours, we finally have our own asparagus bed!  Now we only have to wait two years for our first harvest.

In the meantime we buy in what we need to preserve.

This is 17 pounds of "B" grade asparagus from Mike Burton's beds.  What makes it "B" is that it's not cosmetically beautiful like "A" grade asparagus.  It's buds are a little shaggy, there's inconsistency in the diameter of the stalks, there's a slight bit more woodiness to the bottoms of the stalks.  Is it tasty and nutritious?  It sure is!  And it's less than half the price of the pretty "A" grade!  Since the majority of this is going to be canned as soup pretty isn't an issue.  The bonus is, there are always enough stalks verging on "A" grade in there that I can make a few jars of pickled asparagus as well.