One of the options I considered for the internship component of the HECUA summer program was working on the U of M's student organic farm, Cornercopia. The program coordinator, Courtney Tchida, invited me to help out during class time.
I trekked toward the far northwest corner of the St. Paul Campus until I spotted a group of people hoeing and wrestling with hay. Courtney put me to work right away: I planted Brussels' sprouts and cauliflower, and mulched. Then she asked for volunteers to harvest asparagus and spinach. I was by her side in a flash.
The asparagus was planted in a large V and I had to look carefully for the clumps of purple shoots growing among the other vegetation. I snapped off likely looking stalks of all heights and thicknesses - stalks as thick as a quarter and as tall as my palm, stalks as thin as a pencil and almost up to my knee.
Each was astonishingly juicy and the ends that I popped into my mouth were as tender as anything. It hardly seemed like the same vegetable as what I'd get at the store. I felt like I was in the garden in Narnia, where all the fruit tastes infinitely better than the best you'd ever tasted. Everything I picked was destined for the Campus Club. Lucky ducks.
Photo source: http://www.jungleseeds.com/SeedShop/StemFruit.htm
Yummm, I haven't had purple asparagus, but I have had green asparagus straight from the garden and I had the same reaction!
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