One thing you can do: Make perfectly good food go the distance. We have tips.
Seasonality is the key to healthy eating, but fresh produce doesn’t last forever. The average New Zealander throws out more than $1500 worth of groceries every year, much of it fruit and vege that was past its best when sold, then stored incorrectly and not eaten fast enough at home.
So our mission is two-fold: to eat with the seasons, prioritising sustainability, freshness and locally grown produce; and to reduce food waste, by learning what to look for when buying fresh produce, and what to do with it when you get home.
In this new series we’ll be covering the basics everyone should know about how to select and store their fruit and vege, and then the easiest, most delicious ways to prepare and eat them. This week: asparagus.
When will asparagus appear on the shelves
Asparagus is the ultimate seasonal vegetable. Available for just three months a year, the annual harvest lasts around 100 days, with the first spears picked around mid-September. But the weather can easily impact this — asparagus loves warm weather, and rainfall or colder temperatures will slow down growth and delay the harvest. When the weather is right, however, the spears can grow up to 10cm a day.
What to look for when buying asparagus
The first thing to look for is uniform spears — you want them to cook evenly, so don’t choose a bunch of fat ones and thin ones. Look for long straight spears, with the tips sitting nice and flat.
If you like your asparagus sweeter, be sure to grab the early season harvest. When asparagus is older, the tip can have little growths off to the side — this means it’ll be seedy, and can taste a little bitter.
And if you want to try your hand at growing it...
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Advertise with NZME.Iain and Stacey Trotter of Trotter Farm is a third-generation asparagus farmer from Twyford in Hawkes Bay, where they grow green and the larger, sweeter purple asparagus. Stacey’s top tips are space, and patience.
“Don’t over-pick the crowns when they’re new,” she says. “Buy the crowns, put them in the ground around August then leave them, don’t pick them for the first year. You’ll get asparagus fern which looks like a pine tree plantation, nice and soft looking, light green spiky. Let those crowns establish themselves for one whole year — if you give them a chance, they’ll grow for 15 years. They want room too, around 1m, so don’t just shove a heap in your garden — let them have space.
How to store and care for asparagus
Asparagus won’t sit around all that long, so don’t hang about. As soon as it’s home, wash it by soaking in water for 5 or 10 minutes, and then gently rolling it about to get any sand or soil out of the tips (if it rains after spears have emerged from the ground, a little topsoil can be splashed into the scales).
Then dry it lightly with paper towel, and take about 1cm off the ends. Forget the fallacy that’s been in the cookbooks since the 1970s — there’s no need to snap your stems at the part that feels woody. Two or three days after being picked, asparagus starts to dehydrate a little, so if you soak it at home, that stem will become tender again.
Place in a sealed bag in the fridge while it’s still damp, and your asparagus can stay crispy and fresh for up to 10 days.
Asparagus will continue to grow after it’s picked, curving upwards if it’s lying on its side — to prevent this, store in a jar with a little water in the bottom, and secure it in the door of the fridge.
And the simplest, most delicious way to prepare it?
Iain says he likes his asparagus raw — straight from the field, or thrown into a salad. For a simple preparation, Stacey’s favourite technique is simple: grab a big piece of foil, chuck in your asparagus with salt, pepper, butter and a bit of lemon juice, and throw that on the top rack of the barbeque for five or 10 minutes — it’ll be perfect.
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Advertise with NZME.Our favourite asparagus recipes
This versatile cashew cream is great for dipping fresh vegetables like asparagus and dolloping on salads.
Crispy bruschetta meets a creamy garlic spread, chopped olives, broad beans and fresh asparagus.
These pea fritters make for a great Sunday brunch, or serve them any time of day with asparagus and a poached egg.
Rich, buttery and able to feed a generously sized crowd, this meal will see you eat well through any occasion. Aioli and some potatoes love it as much as we do.
This sandwich’s secrets are its Dijon mustard, and just the right amount of asparagus and chives.
Hot, oozy cheese rolls, but make them with a vibrant-green vegetable.
Spice up your beans. Bonus: There are no fancy gadgets required.
Asparagus flavoured with garlic and lemon marries seamlessly with the creamiest polenta.
Serve this bake for brunch or lunch with your favourite chutney and a side salad. It is just as good hot or cold.
The halloumi and asparagus make great bedfellows, and buttery toasted almonds round everything well.
