In September 2020, I told you that the British consume more Brussels sprouts per year than any other population, and that sprouts traditionally are served with Christmas dinner. Well, there is another vegetable that arouses similar fervor and national pride, and that is asparagus in Germany, white or blanched asparagus, to be precise. From mid-April until St. John’s Day on June 24, Germans consume approximately 70,000 tons of “spargel,” or white asparagus, during spargel season.

My mother didn’t cook asparagus when I was growing up, and I didn’t try it until I was an adult. I fell in love at first bite, but with green asparagus. I had never seen white asparagus until Jim, the boys, and I moved to southern Germany in 1972. I saw my first spargel on the vegetable truck that came to our neighborhood every week, and frankly, I was repulsed by those pale, fleshy fingers, but I soon learned that if we were going to patronize our favorite Gasthaus in the spring, we were going to be served spargel.

I still prefer green asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), but only the fresh kind. If, like me, you enjoy crisp, green asparagus spears, and can’t tolerate the mushy, tasteless stuff in a can, it is time to prepare an asparagus bed for planting early next spring. You can, in fact, prepare your asparagus bed a full year in advance.

Choose a planting site that receives eight hours of full sun each day. Asparagus requires moist, well-drained, organically rich, neutral to alkaline soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.7. It is a good idea to have a soil test done. Asparagus is a hardy perennial, and should produce spears for at least 12 to 15 years, so you want the soil to be as fertile as possible.

Prepare a four-foot-wide bed by removing all weeds. Add compost or well-aged manure, and any combination of wood ashes, bone or blood meal, and leaf mold. Add amendments recommended by the soil test results. Asparagus needs high phosphorus and potassium at planting. See VCE Publication 426-401 (SPES-250-E) “Asparagus” instructions for double-digging in heavy soils.

You can plant asparagus seed, but the seeds are fragile and easily crushed. Starting plants from seeds will add an extra year to production time, so most home gardeners purchase asparagus mounds in March or April. Purchase mounds from a reputable dealer to prevent introduction of disease into your asparagus bed. Healthy mounds should be plump and grayish-brown. The Jersey varieties, developed at Rutgers University and another variety, Millennium, are recommended in the Penn State Extension article “Growing Asparagus in the Home Garden.”

Plant asparagus mounds two to four weeks before the last average frost, around April 21 to April 30 in Gloucester. Dig a trench 6 to 12 inches deep and 12 to 18 inches wide, leaving 4 to 5 feet between trenches. Soak the mounds in water for 20 minutes and remove any rotted roots before planting. Set the crowns 18 to 24 inches apart in the trench, and cover with 2 to 3 inches of soil. When plants begin to sprout after about a week, add another 1 to 2 inches of soil. Continue the process weekly until the trench is filled.

Be patient. Keep the bed weed-free, and don’t harvest shoots during the first year. During the second year, harvest shoots for two weeks. In the third year, harvest spears for 8 to 10 weeks. Don’t let them grow more than 6 to 8 inches tall, or the ends will be fibrous and tough.

Mulch your asparagus bed in the fall, and add nitrogen and a top-dressing of compost in late winter or early spring.

Asparagus beetles and cutworms are occasional pests, but rarely require pesticide application. Asparagus rust, a fungal disease, can infect the plants.

If you prefer white asparagus, mound the soil around the developing spears. The lack of sunlight will deter the production of chlorophyll, and you will enjoy spargel season every spring.