Asparagus

Wow, what a week it’s been; well that is my excuse for not posting any news since last Monday. I had a training course which went on all weekend to prepare for and G2 always keeps me pretty busy. All the recipes turned out well and I shall be very happy to cook them all summer long - no doubt some new dishes will present themselves, they normally do.Two recipes had warm asparagus in. One was a salad with warm roasted beetroot and soft boiled eggs, the other a bruschetta with mozzarella. The Chin family, Wye Valley asparagus is exceptional this year. I don't think I have enjoyed asparagus like it since we grew our own in the garden at home. It is so tender but solid and has a delicate flavour. I can't stop eating it and just think in recent years I have been saying it is over rated I would just as well have broccoli. Forget that!
Needless to say it is grown in poly tunnels, but it does the little blighters no harm. It is an extraordinary sight too, mesmerising in fact, to see the pickers silhouetted against huge expanses of whiteness like peasants toiling in the snow on the Russian Steppes. It is strange though to be eating local asparagus in April, such a cold one too, but much as I love seasonality on the table I just don't want to resist this one and anyway it is grown on the doorstep and picked the same day we eat it. Food does not get better than that.
I noticed the Lilly of the Valley are up early too - no thanks to poly tunnels either. When I lived in Penzance they were always in flower for Helston Flora Day on May 8th (or is it 9th) and always bloomed a week or so later here.
Speak soon Lindy