IN SEASON
From fi eld TO PLATE
MAY MARKS THE START OF A MAGICAL TIME FOR HOMEGROWN PRODUCE AS WE WELCOME ASPARAGUS AND THE VERY FIRST NEW POTATOES
West Country of course, but asparagus is so weather dependent that it is hard to predict when the season will kick off . The offi cial asparagus season runs from 23rd April to 21st June, but it all depends on the weather. We spoke to John Keeler of Tregassow Asparagus Farm in Cornwall who explained that the wet weather we have had isn’t helping. John has been recording the rainfall and says they had 47 inches in just six months, which is about the average for an entire year – not what asparagus needs.
E
very year we wait with bated breath to see the fi rst green spears of asparagus available in our local veg shops and every year it’s at a slightly diff erent time. It depends where you are in the
The good news is that since speaking to John the weather has picked up, which is exactly what is needed to coax the spears out. “There’s no normality,” John explained, “last year it looked like it was going to be good, then we got a very cold April and beginning of May and we didn’t really get going until the third week of May. You’re never quite sure what’s going to happen.” Tregassow grows 60 acres of asparagus, although the yield on that is lower in Cornwall than in other parts of the West Country. “We get about a third of what they get up country,” says John. Twenty per cent of Tregassow’s asparagus is taken to farmers’ markets in Truro, Falmouth and Lostwithiel by John’s wife, while the rest is delivered to farm shops and to
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68