Allotments 4 All

I'm very exited to see asparagus spears starting to sprout. The plant have been in long enough to start harvesting this year. Does anyone use an asparagus knife and what is the advantage? Whenever I pick from below the soil surface the bottom of the spear is too hard to eat anyway.
Thanks.

We are quite new to asparagus, been cutting for a couple of years.We just use an old carving knife below the surface.When I snap the stems for cooking I keep the hard woody bits ,bung em in the freezer then use to make stock for asparagus soup,they might be woody but they've got flavour  :)

Good question!

If you leave a bit showing, it just goes dry and dies.

This site may help :-

http://www.life123.com/home-garden/vegetable-gardening-2/stalk-plants/how-to-cut-asparagus.shtml

I find this phrase interesting

"folklore dictates that asparagus spears be cut about one inch below the soil"

http://allaboutallotments.com/index.html

oh mine arent showing at all yet (2nd year) - have I killed them or is it the same for others?

Mine are only just starting to show.

Why faff around with trimming?

Use the tough white bit from below soil level as your 'handle'.

Ours isn't showing yet... but we've just pulled the last sprout stem...  :)

An asparagus knife is curved which helps to avoid cutting an adjacent spear (underground) by accident. It is also quite long so you do not have to bend so far, ie it is better for your back.

We always find the outside of the bottom inch or so tough so we trim this bit ... perhaps we like faffing around!

Re the appearance of spears it depends on (a) where you live in the UK and (b) the variety. We have Cito, an early variety, which has recently appeared. We also have Backlim, a later variety, which will probably not appear until the end of the month.   

Quote from: gwynleg on April 11, 2010, 17:46:54
oh mine arent showing at all yet (2nd year) - have I killed them or is it the same for others?

ours aren't showing yet and last year we cut our first spears on the 25th of April.A neighbor has got some showing and they are from a spare crown we gave him planted the same time as ours.So I expect they'll show when they show :)