Field guide · Spring

Asparagus

Espargos in Portugal, Spargel in Germany, and in English, from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, sparrowgrass: the Greek word sounded stiff, so speakers bent it into something they knew. Portugal has two kinds: the fat cultivated spears, and espargos bravos, thin and sharper, picked off a spiny scrub in the Alentejo from late winter and scrambled into eggs. Germany grows its white Spargel under mounds of soil so it never sees light, and stops cutting on St John's Day, 24 June, to give the plants a hundred days before frost. Fresh stems squeak. Simplest thing to do with it: bend each spear until it snaps, and keep the top half.

Noted 2026-10-28