ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170007
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAWRENCE G. PROULX THE WASHINGTON POST
Eat spinach and you're eating leaves. Eat carrots and you're eating roots. Is there any other food than asparagus in which you eat so bold a part as the spear?
Spears, crowns, cladophylls - the very terms of its anatomy suggest an aristocrat.
It's priced above the ordinary vegetable, too, even now during its peak season averaging $1.99 per pound in the Roanoke Valley, although occasionally falling into the 99 cents to $1.29 per pound range. Mark Tromatter, chairman of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board, explained why. ``The harvest of it is very labor-intensive,'' he said. ``There is no way we have found to profitably mechanically harvest it.''
Its seeds take a year becoming crowns. A crown ``looks like a giant tarantula; it has a central body from which the buds are formed and then long tentacles that grow laterally,'' he said. Crowns are hand-planted at a depth of nine inches in a field that has taken two or three years to ready.
The first year's shoots (spears) are allowed to grow into full fernlike plants three to six feet high whose tiny branches, cladophylls, do the photosynthetic work that leaves in ordinary plants do. (The actual leaves of the plant are the small flap-like growths on the spear.) In the following spring, the ferns are mowed off and hand-harvesting of the new shoots begins.
White asparagus, popular in Europe but rarely seen in the United States, is not a different plant. It is kept covered with soil as it grows and, without sunlight, stays pale.
Nutritionally, green asparagus is rich in folic acid, with appreciable amounts of vitamins C and A and potassium. It has virtually no fat or sodium.
However, despite its many merits, in a recent survey by Land O Lakes Light Butter, asparagus was America's third least-favorite vegetable, right behind Brussels sprouts and spinach.
That may be partly due to diners' unfamiliarity with the produce.
Bill DePaoli, manager of the California Asparagus Commission, said both thin and thick asparagus can be equally tender.
``There's basically no difference in fiber,'' he said. ``My preference is the jumbo spear, which is the larger spear (13/16 of an inch in diameter minimum).'' He cuts off the lower inch or so and uses it sliced for soup stock.
Asparagus can be as simple to prepare as you want: Steaming or boiling takes only a few minutes. If it's fresh, you may enjoy it with nothing added. Or you can dress it in hundreds of ways.
A simple lemon-and-garlic dressing works well, said Edee Hogan, a Capitol Hill dietitian. Or you can toss the spears in a plastic bag with a little salt, pepper and olive oil and then bake them for about 10 minutes in a 450,F oven, she said. Give the baking sheet a shake or loosen spears with a spatula when they're about half-cooked.
- Food Editor Almena Hughes contributed information to this story
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB