Foraging, Farm Life, and Asparagus Soup

You know I love foraging. Out behind the back yard, beside the path leading along the creek to the woods, there’s an asparagus patch. Kurt the landlord says it’s probably 50 years old and has thrived there. He remembers picking asparagus as a kid, and that even though the stalk tends to be big (and they are, they are HUGE, and nearly as long as a walking stick) they are always tender. Yesterday Kurt and I walked out there and harvested about seven pounds of stalks. HUGE ONES. I had to cut them into thirds just to get them in my foraging bag.

Upon examination back home, I could see that the outer skin was quite tough and stringy, but when I cut in, the centers were very tender.

So I got to peeling and chopping and filling up my soup pot! I also added some chopped onion, garlic slices, cracked pepper, and dried hot pepper flakes and simmered it slowly for an hour, then hit it with the immersion blender. Now I have a very creamy asparagus soup. And I will give half of it to Kurt, because even though he’s been eating that asparagus all his life, he’s never had it MY way.

Bonus forage! We grabbed a rusty old metal milk crate off a pile of farm scrap. It will probably become a plant stand or a side table on the front porch when I get around to setting things up there.