WILD ASPARAGUS

This should meet this week's vegetable challenge.

The weed women have been out in the countryside collecting green things to eat for several weeks. They collect dandelion, arrach (a member of the goosefoot family) and I'm not sure what else, but we've been given bunches of it and at this time of year we fall upon it like starving beasties. Most fruit and vegetables in Italy are seasonal and by this time of year everybody is sick of broccoli, cabbage, bietola and all things grown under plastic.

At this fleeting moment the prize is wild asparagus. It is terrific stuff. We've had one lot in risotto and another simply steamed, which is the best way. I had my eye on a nice patch of it but somebody nicked it. This is all that could be found today.

Asparagus of any kind is great stuff. It is extremely low in calories and has only 18 per 300 grams or 3 1/2 ounces. You can really pig out on it. The same amount contains 240 mgs of potassium, 500 ugs of carotene, 20 mgs of Vitamin C, 2.5 mgs of Vitamin E, plus valuable amounts of folacin, calcium and minerals. The tips contain asparagine which has a strong diuretic action.

Asparagus was cultivated in the time of Cato the Elder in 200 B.C. It was certainly cherished by the Greeks and Romans. It was first seen in the London markets in 1670.

The above information is from one of my own books so you just know it is absolutely spot on. The book is out of print. Pity.

Some prefer the large, white-based spears but these do not pack the vitamin and mineral wallop that the green spears do.

I had to bring the asparagus indoors because the wind is very powerful today and any pic taken would have been an action shot.

For the record: + 8 C. Sunny morning! Clouded over. Strong winds.