Asparagus grows wild and abundant around here in the springtime, but we only have a few small patches growing near our driveway. We harvested a few stalks one morning for brunch, and it made a delicious side dish with our omelettes. But my sweetie had been telling me he could take me to a place where we could harvest bags full of asparagus. The opportunity came up and we walked up to one of his dad’s pastures. Well, the pasture did not disappoint.

There was asparagus everywhere, and we didn’t even get to the motherlode. On our little foray we harvested over 3 pounds worth, a nice big bag full!

When you buy asparagus at the grocery store, you don’t tend to scratch your head and think, gee, what am I going to do with all of this? No, you parse it out and fight over the last spear with your tablemates. Not so when you’re picking it wild. I love asparagus but the idea of eating it the same way over and over made my stomach curdle. So I started digging deep into the food catalog part of my brain for ideas to keep the asparagus interesting. Here’s what I ended up making.

Meal 1: Sauted asparagus with fried eggs:

Meal 2: Asparagus potage (cooked and pureed asparagus with a little half and half):

Meal 3: Asparagus quiche with charcuterie served with garden salad and homemade  gf sourdough brown rice bread:

Meal 4: Asian style asparagus served with sticky rice and pink sauerkraut:

Meal 5: Sweet potatoes, onions, ground beef and asparagus:

All of these meals were pretty simple and delicious but I think my favorite was eating it with sticky rice and sauerkraut. The brightness of the sauerkraut makes a nice contrast with the earthy asparagus and the sticky rice provides a nice framework.

If you’re rolling your eyes at me because you don’t have a pasture full of wild asparagus at your disposal, go plant some! You don’t even need a garden, just plant it in a healthy spot in your yard and let it do it’s thing. Consider it an edible landscaping plant.

One of the coolest parts of our asparagus foraging adventure was an encounter with a skunk. It was totally oblivious of us for at least a minute, so we got to observe it doing its thing. And when it did notice us, it took off running so quickly we both had to laugh. My sweetie pie captured the lovely pasture under a moody sky and got a souvenir of our unexpected foraging buddy here: