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By Donna LaPre
to the Rappahannock News
At least as many historical names for asparagus exist as the methods of cultivating this perennial, delicious spring vegetable.
“Sperage", “sparagus" and the charming “sparrow grass" or later, “grass" for short, are some of its monikers: the Greek word “spargao" has a meaning unfit for print!
Asparagus officinalis is in fact, a member of the lily family, and “lilies of the field" may be an apt reference to the green, grassy spears and foliage, inspired in part by Rappahannock County cheese maker Heidi Eastham’s approach to asparagus growing.
Taking a somewhat haphazard route with cultivation is Heidi’s style. She says, in Yogi Berra fashion, “If it grows wild — it grows!” More on this, later.
Dioecious in nature (having plants which are distinctly “male" and “female”), the females bear red berries which are easily dispersed by wind, birds and animals, and will pop up like grass in roadside ditches or other well-drained ground.
The main difference between wild and purposefully cultivated asparagus is in its circumference. Free growing asparagus is quite pencil-thin, while farm and garden specimens, in the prime of their growing season, produce plumper stalks, especially when fed well with manure and com
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