Are you looking forward to the English Asparagus Season?
We are…English Asparagus has to be one of my all-time favourite treats, so I’m looking forward to including it on our menu at Heath House Kitchen in Uttoxeter.
The English Asparagus Season starts in May and lasts until the end of June…21st or mid-summers day if you want to be precise. Dave and I love bringing seasonal produce to the menu and so we were discussing all things asparagus, including some of the lesser known facts about this seasonal delicacy…and by lesser known, what I really mean is facts that I didn’t know.
Dave has always insisted on using English or British Asparagus. Until today I simply thought that this stemmed from his passion for local produce and low food miles…What I hadn’t realised, was that the asparagus production is having a devastating impact in some countries; Peru in particular. The main issue is water…or lack of it.
Here is Britain we have the perfect growing conditions for Asparagus; namely warmth and plenty of rain. Yet Peru, which is one of the driest countries in the world is also the largest exporter of Asparagus. Growing Asparagus in such dry conditions requires constant irrigation which is depleting the water table significantly. The impact upon the local rural communities in Peru has been significant with farmers finding that the wells that they rely on have run dry because water has been diverted to irrigate asparagus.
I was intrigued so took to Google and found that this is a long standing problem which has seen the water table drop by as much as 8 metres in a year.
….so for this reason, we will only be using British Asparagus this season.
Which brings us neatly back to dishes and menus.
The final decision on this years Asparagus dishes was to keep it simple so that the flavours speak for themselves. So we will be serving a simple starter of asparagus, poached egg and hollandaise throughout the asparagus season.
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