Asparagus Season Once Again

Another bright and sunny day. Eureka! I love it. Now if we could blow in a few degrees more in the temperature column, it would be perfect. Of course nothing is perfect long, is it? Soon we will be wishing to turn down the outside thermostat.

It's asparagus season here in De Motte. Mary, my stepmom and my sister in law tell me they find enough in the ditch banks to keep them enjoying the wonderful vegetable. I haven't found any growing wild. I think I will have to break down and buy some. Early this spring when Meijers or other big markets had asparagus, the stalks were often thin and spinly. I don't like thin asparagus. Give me the thick ones....then it feels like I've got something to sink my teeth into.

As we drove by a small particle of land in town a few nights ago, I pointed out to Isaiah that when our eldest child started kindergarten at De Motte Christian, the kids and I picked asparagus on what was then an asparagus patch. We rented it from a church acquaintance. This was to be the answer to the tuition that our budget didn't have extra for. My kids were then five, three and under a year. Lauri was the baby and she slept in the car as I dragged wooden boxes row after row to put in our precious harvest. Obviously I had the big help of a five and three year old and at each stalk we bent over to crack it off at the root. Some mornings were freezing cold, others were hot and humid. Oh my goodness, when I think of getting out so early in the morning with three little bitty kids, it makes me exhausted. I wish I had the energy I had then but I wouldn't want to do it again. The asparagus picking was a project that went on a few years and we picked other patches as well. I loved picking asparagus as a kid, but then I rode on a picker and my seat was just above the ground so snapping was easy. There were also other kids on the picker to chat and have fun with. I started helping my dad and mother pick asapargus when I was five. I drove the tractor while they sat on the picker. My dad would yell at me when I let the wheels go into the row. His famous line was, "Keep the pot over the middle of the row!". The pot was a tractor part that was to be my guide. A little kid's mind wanders sometimes.