C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 23,1981 Asparagus, a vegetable worth cutting BY SALLY BAIR Staff Correspondent Many delights come with the arrival of Spring and the onset of gardening but asparagus has to rank as one of the richest pleasures of the season. Nothing can quite compare with fresh-from-the garden asparagus, cooked to perfection and covered with melted butter. Unless you grow your own, you probably have little idea of the hard work mvolved in getting that garden fresh delight to your table. Mr. and Mrs. Vance Bncker, Carlisle Rl, devote their entire spring to providing asparagus for enthusiasts. Asparagus is one of the earliest vegetables to creep through the sod ?nd Alice Bricker says you can b gm cutting as early as the first «eek of April, depending upon the weather. Her first day for cutting this year was April 6, The two women work easily although last year cool weather together, with animated chatter postponed the first harvest until making the work load seem the tiurd week of the month. lighter. Alice says Edna is the Once the first cutting begins, sister she never had. When asparagus harvest is an every day customer arrives for an order including Sunday job. The there is pleasant conversation as Bnckers are cutting off of 10,000 the work continues, plants, with an additional 5,000 in All asparagus is sold by order, the process of maturing. with customers calling two weeks There are three regular cutters m advance to place their orders, including Alice, husband Vance \ They are then notified on the and their good friend Edna Brehm. specific day theirs is ready. During the season their day begins Alice says, “There is none sold at5.45a.m. when they “go through wholesale. We never have any the whole patch.” While the total sitting around.” Indeed a drop-m amount of time varies throughout customer cannot expect to acquire the season and depends upon the even a bunch of asparagus except weather, Alice estimates that it by luck. takes about three hours daily. Alice tries to have all the Cutting stops from 7:00 am. to 8:00 asparagus picked up by noon, then am. while Edna and Alice each go it is “good and fresh.” It also frees home to get their school age up her afternoon for hoeing children off to school. Usually it strawberries, her other intensive continues until 10:30 am. business in early summer. The cutters go through the rows, Customers come from as far two at a time, using a sharp cutting away as Annville m Lebanon tool to cut the plants at ground County and Maryland. Alice surface. Of course, this means a lot states, “Some customers repeat of bending. Alice says, “You need but each year I get some new a strong back.” On a good day they ones.” might cut 200 pounds of asparagus. She feels there is an unlimited When the cutting is finished, the market for asparagus and admits work is just beginning. Next Edna that she could sell far more than and Alice work to “bunch” the she has. However, she says she has asparagus in small parcels of no desire to expand, preferring to approximately 3/4 pound each, keep the operation a size that she Alice and Edna show the technique for at a time as they move through the field. The cutting asparagus in the field. Alice says, “It Brickers cut from 10,000 plants, takes a strong back." Cutters take two rows v This is an estimate, and the bun- ches are weighed when they are picked up by customers. Each bunch is secured by a string, then stood in trays with metal mesh bottoms. After being hosed down to wash off excess soil, the bunches are stood upright in trays of water until customers arrive. The only waste in the operation is cutting off the ragged ends before they are sold. While these are usable, the Bnckers discard them. But Alice adds, “At the bottom of the spear, you can peel off the hard part and then it is soft enough to use.” As they sort out the asparagus for bundles, there are skinny, fat and otherwise malformed asparagus spears left on the table. These are then cut up and offered for sale as is, or used by Alice and Edna, both of whom claim they never tire of eating. jnce a Alice . jr pose by . Jgn which identifies their asparagus and strawberry business. Alice says the strawberries are her husband's and the and her husband can handle with just a little extra help. She says there is no local competition in the asparagus business. Both Alice and Edna agree that the most important thing m cooking asparagus is not to overcook. While Alice contends it is not necessary to blanch the asparagus before freezing, she tells those who do they should put the asparagus in boiling water just until it turns a different shade of green, about one minute. Then it should be plunged into ice water, drained and frozen. Alice prefers her asparagus in a casserole. She puts one layer of partially cooked asparagus into a greased casserole, adds a layer of hard cooked eggs, then spreads some cheese soup and repeats each layer. This is topped with bread crumbs and baked at 350 degrees for about Vz hour. Edna says she prefers her asparagus simply cooked and served with butter. Alice says she tries to fmd tune to freeze about 40 packs a year for her own use, but adds, “I get the little stuff chopped up.” This year there was a frost which (Turn to Page C4>) asparagus crop is hers. They work together on these spring crops with a schedule which leaves little free time. Edna Brehm weighs a bunch of asparagus before it is sold. All the asparagus is ordered in-advance, with customers notified when their order is ready. The cutting tool employed by the Brickers works easily to cut off the asparagus spear as a first step in the marketing process.
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