Germans Dig for "White Gold" as Demand for Asparagus Grows

Articles: Germans Dig for "White Gold" as Demand for Asparagus Grows

Posted by Admin on Monday, April 23, 2007 - 10:50 PM

White asparagus has been called the "vegetable of kings," "edible ivory," or simply "white gold." The unusually warm weather has meant a great start to the season in Germany. But others in Europe aren't pleased.

<i class="caption">Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germans eat the most white asparagus in the world

There's a continual stream of people bustling in and out of the store on the Böser asparagus farm in Bruchsal in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. The unseasonably warm April temperatures have caused the asparagus to shoot earlier than normal. This has caused record harvests for this time of the year, but it's still not as much as farmers originally hoped for.

"With such a mild winter, we thought we would just need a couple of rays of sun, and the asparagus would appear," said Wolfgang Böser, the chairman of the Association of South German Asparagus and Strawberry Farmers. "But then we had a cold snap."

"Still, the harvest is in full swing and straight after Easter, production just shot up," he said.

<b style="">Fresh is best

Many of the customers here have driven a long way to buy kilos of fresh white asparagus, and it's not because the prized vegetable is necessarily cheaper direct from the farm -- it's because Germans are obsessed with freshness when it comes to asparagus.

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