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...