In March 1954 our family moved house, from Trevallyn to East Launceston, a great event that coincided with the young Queen Elizabeth II’s arrival in Tasmania on her Commonwealth Coronation Tour, about which I’ll write more another time.
Our first spring in the Bifrons Court house saw a 1m x 1m patch of the garden produce fine shoots of what we learned were asparagus.
According to a discussion with cousin Don a couple of weeks ago, it should be cut at least daily to encourage growth; and the season in Launceston lasts 6-8 weeks in September-October. It then goes to seed and looks like some fluffy ferny thing for a while before it dies off, falls down and disappears until the next season. Late father-in-law Helmut, a German, told us that in his part of Europe the season was shorter, and generally people ate fresh green spears with mashed potato and ham while the short season lasted. Looking in vain online for a free photo to use, I was reminded of how useful fresh spears are, lending themselves to being wrapped in various sliced foods like non-crumbly cheeses, prosciutto and other preserved meats. They can be topped with, and dipped into, lots of tasty, dippy things. The uses of asparagus is apparently limited only by your imagination, with a lot of potential I realise I have ignored too long.
As I said, up until we moved into our new house, my main acquaintance with asparagus was tinned, and more often via asparagus rolls. I had forgotten these until our talk with Don, as I haven’t seen them for years. Very thinly sliced fresh bread is lightly buttered with softened butter, and the crusts removed. On each slice a spear is laid diagonally just short of corner to corner, it’s rolled up and secured with a toothpick. These rolls are arranged on a serving plate, covered with a clean damp cloth, and placed in the frig for a couple of hours, then removed just before serving. It was one of Mum’s standard supper table items for card nights, and just sometimes for picnics. As very thin sliced bread is available where I live in Montevideo, they will definitely be on the menu for my next mahjong day!