Green asparagus with rosemary
Per person 400 to 500 g green asparagus, 2 tbsp fresh rosemary needles, 4 tbsp olive oil; dry red wine, salt, pepper. New potatoes; lamb chops.
Cut the well-washed asparagus spears in half lengthwise. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and sprinkle in the rosemary needles. Add the halved asparagus and fry briefly on all sides, season with salt and pepper. Deglaze with wine and cover. Take care that the asparagus does not become too soft. Serve with new potatoes and grilled lamb chops.
Mother Werth's Asparagus Tip Soup:
For 4 people: 1 kg asparagus tips, 2 carrots, 1 shallot, 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, 4 tbsp wheat semolina, 1 tbsp butter, 1.5 l vegetable stock.
Peel the carrots and shallot and cut into fine cubes. Sauté in the butter, add the semolina and stir-fry lightly, add the asparagus tips and continue to sauté briefly. Deglaze with the stock, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley.
Significantly finer and less bitter: organic asparagus
With the cultivation of organic asparagus it behaves most simply, tells Peter Werth. You don't need pesticides, herbicides, insecticides or chemical fertilizers. Instead, castor bean meal and, after the harvest, a lot of manure. The young plants are helped along with large amounts of compost. This way, the asparagus plants yield less, but for longer. Up to this point, this sounds so good that one wonders why there is still asparagus from conventional production at all.
But that is not all, because after the harvest it is called hand put on, to the hoe namely, to get in two passes the "Beikraut", as Werth calls the weeds, master. This extra work, however, also brings yield, because Werth can head his organic asparagus for about ten years, whereas in conventional cultivation the plants are exhausted after only seven years.
Also, up to 30% higher prices can be achieved for organic asparagus. Although it is such a thing this year, because - asparagus is sold by the day price - too much of the coveted vegetable came to market due to the weather. If the night temperatures rise to ten or even twelve degrees, then there is no stopping the asparagus, it stretches its tender little heads, and there it is pricked, which women from Croatia and Hungary have been providing at Werth for years. A Volga German is the cock of the walk.
In appearance, organic asparagus does not differ from conventional, even the characteristics of the commercial classes are the same, but not the taste. Asparagus farmer Werth praises his as much finer and less bitter, also the cooking water does not foam as much as usual. Customers who have once got to know Werth asparagus always come back, even from Wiesbaden or the Taunus.
The markets are looked after by Werth's wife Gilda Chitunda, an architect from Brazil, where the two met during his agricultural studies. The markets also feature a specialty of the house: Asparagus heads, white and purple, which do not require peeling. Mother Werth prepares a popular, colourful soup from them, which is well worth trying.
His regular customers not only asked for white asparagus, many also enjoyed his green asparagus, which is by no means just obtained from the shoots of white asparagus, which take on a green colour in the light. Werth, on the other hand, grows special varieties, called Schneewittchen and Schneekoppe. With justified pride, Patron and Stecher present a jointly developed preparation that is as interesting as it is delicious and, to top it off, easy to realize: green asparagus with rosemary.
Bioland Farm
.Peter Werth and Gilda Chitunda
Draustr. 47
64347 Griesheim-St.Stephan (near Darmstadt)
Phone:06155-61786, Fax: 880349
in season Mon-Fri 16-19, Sat 10-12 u. 4-7pm, Sun 10am-12pm open.
Markets in Darmstadt and Eberstadt
from Waldemar Thomas