Over here in the northeast, you wouldn’t know it was spring, what with all the rain and jacket weather we’ve been having, except… All the early spring foods are making their appearance. Big time.
The Mighty Asparagus!
Taken from a food-grown-in-the-ground perspective, this is the time of year all of the fresh foods come “springing” forth. I’m going to let you in on some inside secrets. What all the seasonal eaters know, is that this is the season of some seriously good eats!
Right now, asparagus is fresh, sweet and delicious. This is very different from the asparagus sent around the country year-round from California. This is the asparagus local to your area, grown from soil rich with microbes, that inhabit the same places as you do. (Umm, okay – nerd alert – pumping the breaks.)
The bottom line is that this food is not only super-fresh but packed with the vitamins and minerals that your body needs this time of year, the food that mother nature intended us to eat right NOW.
Years ago, a friend of mine who worked at the Union Square Green Market in New York, started celebrating “ramps and fiddleheads!” I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about – but I was intrigued. Then a few years later I came across nettles, and my seasonal life changed. People! These foods are incredible for so many reasons.
- They are seasonal and they make their appearance relatively short — giving them the status of precious gem of the plant world
- Many of them grow wild, making them entirely more nutrient abundant
- They help us clear the gunk out from the winter and they hint to us which direction to take our consumption in (hint: green)
Today, I will focus only on Asparagus (so you might go out and consume it with gusto).
Portrait of Asparagus on Rainy Spring Day
Asparagus is a highly alkalizing vegetable. In fact, it is one of the most powerful alkalizers known in the vegetable world. Asparagus is believed to help with fertility and is used around the world in some form for this purpose. In each region it bursts forth from the ground and is up for about two weeks. Barbara Kingsolver writes a beautiful story around foraging for asparagus with her father in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
The “unique” smell that accompanies your urine is the quick flushing of acid waste from your blood and kidneys. This is a great alkalizing cleanse for your bladder and kidneys.
Here are a few quick ways to prepare fresh, seasonal asparagus.
To prepare, rinse and slice off the woody ends of the stems on the bias (they may be 1-2 inches only).
Simple Roasted Asparagus:
- Slice asparagus in to bite size pieces
- Put in a cooking dish
- Add 1 TBS Ghee (clarified butter) or Olive Oil
- Heat tosater oven 300˚ if using ghee, 200˚ if using olive oil
- Add pinch of celtic sea salt to taste
- Roast it for 10-20 minutes (this means walk away and do other things while checking back occasionally) the asparagus would be bright green.
This was so delicious, I don’t even have a photo becasue I ate it right out of the baking dish.
Simple Stir Fried Asparagus:
- Try a stir fry with ginger, garlic and sea salt
Have either of these by themselves (I eat a whole bunch at one sitting), over millet or quinoa, or with some brown rice pasta.
You can also check this fresh, easy Asparagus Salad recipe I posted last year (it’s below the roasted asparagus recipe). Yes, I realize keep posting about Asparagus. Maybe there’s a reason.
Enjoy!
