It’s Asparagus Season! (So Buy Local)

One of my favorite times of the year is asparagus season.  That’s why I planted a few asparagus plants in my garden last year.  I still don’t know much about the cultivation and harvest of the plants, but I have a full year to research and figure it out, as the one thing I do know about it is that there’s a three-year lag between when asparagus is planted and when one ought to harvest their first crop.

Just because I can’t pull it out of my own yard doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy fresh, local asparagus.  I bought six bunches from Janowski Farm Market on Rt. 30 in Clinton (near the airport).  It is their own crop, and they are selling it for $2.50/pound; three pounds for $6.

When I stopped by Soergel Orchard in Wexford last week, the sign outside proclaimed that asparagus would be coming soon!  A quick phone call to Soergel today confirms that asparagus has arrived.  They are selling their crop for $2.78/ pound.  Other options for purchasing asparagus in Wexford include Kaelin Farm Market and Eichner’s Farm Market, but neither has any asparagus in stock yet (both say soon!).

In Pittsburgh, the East End Food Co-op reports local purple asparagus freshly arrived to the store.  Their price is $5.99/ pound.

Should you come across another source of local asparagus, please leave a comment below to help others bask in the glory of one of the first crops of spring!

4 Responses to “It’s Asparagus Season! (So Buy Local)”

  1. Szweda Says:

    Stopped at the co-op today. Apparently they only had three bunches of the purple. Still, if, like me, you don’t have time to get to the other locations, at least the co-op’s green organic variety is from NJ instead of Mexico.

  2. MIL Says:

    Grow some for us, will you???

  3. Peter Says:

    Thanks for the post. Stopped by Janowski Farm Market on Saturday after picking someone up at airport. They had a modest amount of asparagus that looked like it’d been picked several days earlier (the cut bottoms were brown). They were allowed to go too long before picking and many were on the verge of flowering. Cooked them up that night. Nothing special; not particularly good. The best so far have been from Whole Foods. Hope to get some fresh, local, and delicious asparagus somewhere soon!

  4. jwsharrard Says:

    Sorry your experience at Janowski was disappointing. Freshness really makes a huge difference.

Leave a Reply