Spargel Time!

One of the great joys of living in Germany over the US is the seasonal foods.  We still have a little of that in the US, but by and large we eat everything year round in America.  Here in Germany, there are still many, many items that are tied to the season.  The foods are fresher, and the anticipation and short lived chance to enjoy them again adds to the enjoyment when they are around.

I'll add that the very first spring we were here, the kids and I decided that we must have bred taste right out of our produce in the US when we bred large, colorful, and blemish free in.  Even the "pick your own" places we have been to in the US do not produce fruit and veggies that taste as good as most of what we purchase here (though, I admit the "cardboard tomato" has crept in once in a while in the past two years, Ugh!)

We already had Berliner time: jelly filled donuts that are sold primarily in the weeks leading up to, and on the day of Faschings (Carinval).  But our first seasonal item from the farmers that is a really big deal is Spargel.

Spargel is white asparagus.  The method used to grow it was supposedly invented in this region (several towns claim to be THE first to grow it, including Schwetzingen just down the road from us).  It's only in season for about six to eight weeks every year, but when it is it RULES.  Every town is dotted with farm stands selling Spargel.  Every restaurant worth going to has a special Spargel item on the menu.  Friends and neighbors will have dinner parties featuring Spargel as the main entree (often served with potatoes and perhaps a salad to start--nothing else), called "Spargel Essens."  If you are honored with an invitation to such an essen, it is really pretty rude not to go--so be happy to be so lucky and go and enjoy.

David loves Spargel.  When we lived in the US he would try to adjust business trips to Germany so that he could travel in May and have Spargel.  So, we are always among the crowds of Germans at those first early Spargel stands.  Which, this year, showed up over the week end.  I did not have my camera with me, so here are photos of a "fancy" stand selling Spargel on the Pedestrian zone yesterday.  We bought ours from a farmer, right out of a small, dark, concrete store room on the side of his barn.

In the winter this same stand sells roasted chestnuts--it smells so good!  

Getting back to the springtime treat--in the second photo you can sort of see that the Spargel closest to the camera is thicker.  So far as we can tell, the taste is the same, but Spargel is always arranged and priced  by "quality."  Thicker stalks, straighter stalks and pure white stalks can cost twice as much as the thinner, bent, purple tinged ones.  

We are cheapskates who buy skinny, slightly purple tipped Spargel!

Spargel can be cooked all sorts of ways, but I served it last night in the easiest and most common way.  Simply lightly boiled (like normal asparagus,  but be sure to peel it first if you try this yourself--some American friends of ours did not know that!) and covered in Hollandaise sauce.  Sorry there is no photo, David was eating it before I could get my camera out!

Happy May Day to you all,

--Hadley