I especially enjoy eating British asparagus, because it's lovely to eat food that is actually grown in the UK and not imported like so much of our food.
According to the asparagus growers the season runs from the 24th of April until the 21st of June, but as asparagus is a naturally grown vegetable, and there's the obvious changeable British weather to deal with, these dates are not to be taken too literally.
British asparagus is usually green, unlike the variety we used to eat when we lived in France, which was white asparagus. It's really nice eaten cold on a salad, and it's very popular in France. It's white because it's grown in the dark so stop the colour developing. You can also get purple asparagus.
Asparagus is often called an aphrodisiac.
Shayk al Nefzawi, the writer of erotic works in the 16th Century, said that eating asparagus every day, has ‘great erotic effects'. He suggested boiling the asparagus, then frying it in fat with egg yolks and seasoning.
Personally I don't believe that any particular foods have aphrodisiac qualities, I think it's simply clever marketing, as it's always expensive things that are said to be aphrodisiacs.
Asparagus is considered expensive, but it's not considering what you get for your money. Asparagus is quite difficult to grow, and it's time intensive too. It takes three years before the plants yield any spears, and the asparagus is cut by hand because there isn't a machine capable of picking only the spears that are ready to be cut.
So you see, it's not as dear as it may seem.
Eating asparagus may make your wee smell a bit nasty, it's the sulphur in the amino acids in the that break down during digestion. Not everyone who eats asparagus will have smelly wee. And it's hardly a serious problem, far outweighed by the sheer pleasure of eating asparagus.
Asparagus is not only delicious, it's good for you too.
It contains vitamins A, B, and C, it's full of fibre, and folic acid. It’s very good for your heart, and it boosts your immune system and cancer defences, it's good for your skin, nails, and hair. And that's why some people consider it a 'superfood'.
That's another thing I don't believe in, Super foods. Surely it's just a marketing gimmick, as all foods are super foods - aren't they? And by food, I mean food, not processed crap that has little or nothing to do with actual food.
And one last thing, if you're interested, asparagus is a member of the lily family.
Hmm, I think I should have taken a few more photos to add to this post. As usual I only intended to say that asparagus is nice and good for you, but I've rambled on and on.......
So, I shall end by saying once again that I love British asparagus. I like to eat my asparagus lightly steamed and smothered in lots of organic butter.
Do you like asparagus? How do you eat yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment