Top of the crops

"IT is supposed to be an aphrodisiac, you know," says Richard Morritt, with a glance at his wife Ronda. "Both our children were conceived in the asparagus season." We're standing in the middle of a muddy field when he says this. An asparagus field, in fact. It is not at all what I had expected: but then, most people have no idea what asparagus looks like when it is growing. "They think it must be a bush, or leaves," says Ronda.

In fact, this most delectable of vegetables grows in sparse rows in a field of bare brown earth. Small clusters of stalk-like asparagus spears protrude from the top of long ridges of slightly raised earth. From a short distance, the field looks almost empty: only close up can you see the spears themselves, looking like nothing more than the shoots of young ferns before the leaves have opened out.

Richard refers to the plants as 'ferns', although strictly speaking asparagus belongs to the Lily family.

Left to themselves, these spears would grow into large fern-like plants almost as tall as a man. What the asparagus-grower is doing, Richard explains, is cropping the young shoots as they grow, so that the plant continually produces new shoots.

We are already well into the short Yorkshire asparagus season. Richard and Ronda have six fields of asparagus altogether at Low Moor Farm, Sand Hutton. That's about four acres under cultivation - enough to produce a total harvest last year of about 10,000 bundles.

This year, they began cropping on April 24. They'll continue until June 21 - the traditional end of the growing season. From then, the spears will be allowed to grow into full-sized plants, so that the large fronds can help the root systems store the energy they need to produce a new crop next year.

The plants will begin to die back by February or March, when they will be 'flailed' and the ground will be fertilised ready for next year's crop.

The short season is only one reason why asparagus is expensive to grow and produce. There is no subsidy, for a start. Also, the grower needs to be very patient, Ronda says. Once the initial asparagus 'crowns' have been planted, the plants need to be left to grow uncropped for at least 2-3 years to become established. Only then can the spears begin to be harvested on a regular annual basis.

During the season, the crop also needs to be intensively managed. Richard and Ronda have a team of seasonal workers who comb the asparagus fields each day, individually harvesting those spears that have reached the desired size. It is back-breaking work.

Once cropped, the spears are carried back to the farm, where they are washed, trimmed, washed again, weighed and bundled, ready for sale.

Eighty per cent of the farm's asparagus crop is sold direct from the farm itself, in 1lb bundles that cost £2.70 each. Customers can buy it knowing that the asparagus they get is fresh, never more than 24 hours old.

That's important, because fresh asparagus is the best. The longer it is stored, the more it loses its crispness. Fresh asparagus, says Ronda, when you bite into it, should make a noise like biting into a Golden Delicious.

You can buy imported asparagus almost year-round in the supermarket, Richard concedes. "But you notice the difference when you get fresh British asparagus."

Those in the know certainly do. In season, Richard and Ronda supply the award-winning Star Inn at Harome with fresh asparagus, as well as some other local restaurants.

The couple have been producing asparagus for six years now - part of a diversification programme at their 300 acre arable and pig farm, where they also grow strawberries and raspberries. These crops now make up a fairly big slice of the farm's income.

It's not a crop many would associate with Yorkshire - but in fact there are a couple of other local asparagus growers as well, in addition to the Morritts. The soil at Sand Hutton, Richard says, is ideal: sandy and well-drained, so the roots don't get too waterlogged.

That's good news for asparagus lovers. The 1lb bundles on sale at Low Moor Farm are wonderfully fresh and give off a delicious creamy aroma close up.

There are, according to the Asparagus Growers' Association, a host of ways in which this marvellous vegetable can be enjoyed. It can be steamed, roasted with garlic, served with buttered new potatoes or made into asparagus and spinach soup. It can also, Ronda says, be eaten as a salad vegetable - especially the tips of the spears, with the lower stems being reserved for soup.

Her own favourite, however, is to drizzle a few asparagus spears with olive oil in a baking tray, add sea salt, and either roast or grill them for ten to twenty minutes until tender. "Serve on its own or with parmesan shavings," she says. "Delicious!"

Updated: 16:25 Friday, May 07, 2004