Tall green stalks

I still remember sitting in a restaurant with my son when he was about 8 months old. He was enthusiastically enjoying his food while my husband and I enjoyed a nice conversation. A woman stopped by our table and inquired "how do you get your child to eat asparagus?" We just smiled and said "we offered it to him and he ate it." Now that response seems a little smug, but our son has always loved eating his vegetables.

Introducing new foods has never been a challenge for us. He always just ate (or gnawed on) whatever we were eating. Whenever we went to restaurants, we would order a side of steamed vegetables - whatever the kitchen had - knowing he would at least enjoy snacking on those.

As he grew, we always had him "helping in our garden". It nurtured a love of vegetables within him. As early as 2 years old, if we said we grew something on his plate, it was the first thing to disappear.

When we moved to Japan, we left behind our huge garden and easy access to our favorite vegetables. It has been a struggle buying tiny quantities, almost always wrapped in plastic, at the grocery store. Transitioning to a farm delivery service has been wonderful for our family. Yet, we still feel disconnected from our food chain. Being able to go to u-pick farms has pacified this yearning.

When my husband found information about harvesting asparagus, we didn't hesitate. We knew we wanted to go.

The farm was just 20 minutes from our home, making it a lovely Sunday morning bike ride for our family. After parking our bikes, we were shown a short video about proper harvesting techniques. Each spear needed to be measured to ensure it was tall enough for harvesting using a bamboo skewer with a red line clearly marked on it. It should be cut near the soil, avoiding an baby asparagus that might be hiding around it. Once the video finished, we were let into the large greenhouse where to asparagus grew.

At first glance, the greenhouse appeared rather empty. There were simple frames creating rows, and lots of dirt. Asparagus does not have leaves or other adornment, just simple stems growing straight up from the ground (except when it is left to complete its lifecycle, when it gets very tall and feathery at the top).

Our son picked a row and we eagerly got to cutting. It was a simple process. Find a tall spear, measure it, and cut. Soon we had a nice bundle in our plastic bin provided by the farm. A quick stop by the scales told us we had harvested 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds.

We paid ¥3,000 ($28.50 USD) for our bundle and headed home. We were instructed to store the asparagus upright in a small amount of water to maintain freshness.

As we biked away, my husband inquired how I was going to cook the asparagus. I wanted to enjoy the simplicity of this wonderful early spring vegetable. We quickly agreed the best route to take would be simply roasting the asparagus for a short time (so it was tender, but still crisp) and top it with a poached egg and parmesan cheese.

When my family sat down to our simple dinner of asparagus and egg, with a side of rice, I heard groans of appreciation. The asparagus was sweet and flavorful. It exceeded expectations and made our mouths incredibly happy.

We might not live in a place where we have easy access to homegrown vegetables. But u-pick definitely gives us a fun family adventure and a bit of wonder produce fresh from the field. Someday, when we do have that garden again, I would bet my vegetable eating son would love to grow some asparagus of his very own.