A mildly researched article on Spärgel season in Germany

by Kate

 

I am currently in Frankfurt, where I’m spending 3 weeks of my European spring, and where, like the rest of Germany in spring, growing asparagus is taken very, very seriously.

 

Asparagus first arrived in Germany in the 1500s, and, like Catholicism, quickly garnered an infamous reputation. For nearly 300 years, it was an elite ‘royal’ vegetable and not available to the proletariat majority. In the mid 19thC, someone had the idea to just, like, grow more of it, and suddenly both princes and paupers could contribute to the consumption of up to 2 billion stalks in a season.

 

German white asparagus, or spärgel, is grown under very specific conditions, and though being genetically the same as the asparagus we know (and are comparatively ambivalent towards), it bears as much resemblance to the little green spears as oranges do to…well, albino oranges.

White spärgel is grown completely underground in light, sandy soil so as to avoid photosynthesis and therefore from turning green. A side effect of this is their characteristic creamy white, fat stalks, more tender flesh than its green cousin, and a lighter, milder taste.

These days, every market (and many a supermarket, car park, and side of the road) has a dedicated spärgel stand (or 4), where the prices can vary from a modest €4,99/kg to a far more indulgent €15,99/kg for the “premium” products.

 

Like picking season in Queensland, the April-June (24th, officially) spärgel season is largely dependent on the labour of seasonal migrant workers with strong backs who harvest the stalks by hand, one-by-one, with specially designed little fork things. As of yet, no machine has been invented that can harvest the stalks with the same consistency of length and non-breakage as the average minimum-wage worker.

 

A genuinely massive industry, spärgel farms open seasonal restaurants, run tours, and go into a certified frenzy during the Spring, and though there is sometimes an adventurous recipe added to the menu, the most popular spärgel preparation modes have evolved very little in 200+ years.

 

Recipes - you can google these for actual recipes if you want. 

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- Spärgel, potatoes, and ham with butter sauce or hollandaise. A variation with schnitzel is also common.

- Spärgel soup: delicate is the common taste description, and every family has their own recipe.

 

It is possible to get spärgel outside of the season, though it is never local (because there is rarely any left after June 24th) and is faithfully not bought by locals or served in restaurants. It is also possible to source outside of Germany, but according to legend, if it doesn’t squeak when you rub two stalks together, it’s not fresh and therefore not worth it.

 

I’ve tried it, and honestly, it’s fine. I have plans to go to a spärgel festival in Beelitz in a few weeks, and it’s definitely possible that I’ll be swept up into the exciting, fast-paced carnival of asparagus that everyone else seems to experience.

 

Perhaps – because I am living alone in a country where language cordons me off from casual acquainting with locals; because I am, by nature, a very introverted person at my most social; because, due to my Scottish heritage, freckled face, and fear of skin cancer, I am pale and my body is tender – I am just like the German white spärgel, and I am only just now coming into season.

 

And no, I can’t find any evidence of the spärgel’s effect on weeing, so I assume it’s the same as green asparagus.