Short Spears
Though the weather this year hasn’t been nearly as dramatic as last year’s--no torrential rains, no floods, no pictures of farmland under water--in its own, quiet way, it’s been just as bad.
That’s true, at least, for asparagus growers. After hopes were built by a warm winter that resulted in harvests beginning as much as two weeks early, a series of storms brought chilly wet weather to Northern and Central California, effectively shutting down the asparagus industry.
“We just this week caught up with last year’s pace,” says Bill DePaoli, manager of the California Asparagus Commission in Stockton. To put that in perspective, remember that last year’s asparagus harvest was almost 25% below the previous year’s.
“I’m really being an optimist stating that I hope we can reach our 1995 total,” says DePaoli. “It’s been a struggle.”
“We have had some extremely inclement weather conditions,” says DePaoli. “It’s been wet and the vast majority of our acreage has been like one big sponge. We just couldn’t dry out soil. When it’s wet like that, it literally seals the ground and the plants are under stress for oxygen.”
Wholesale prices for asparagus have hovered in the $1- to $1.50-a-pound range all season, meaning $2 to $3 a pound in the grocery store.
Prices should dip some in the next couple of weeks as the Washington state harvest gets underway, but because the California crop represents the vast majority of the fresh asparagus market, the effect won’t be significant.
Interestingly, the Washington-Oregon harvest actually surpasses California’s in terms of total weight (87 million pounds last year to 78 million pounds), but 60% of that crop goes to processing while nearly all of California’s harvest is sold fresh.
Mike Harker, an administrator for the Washington-Oregon Asparagus Commission, argues that consumers should expect to pay more for asparagus.
“In this day and age, I think that the consuming public needs to look at asparagus as having value above $1 a pound,” he says. “That 79-cent and 99-cent asparagus we’ve seen in last few years means that somebody’s losing money. Asparagus is a very delicate crop that’s very dependent on a lot of hand labor both for picking and packing.”
Harker says labor costs alone for asparagus would run 50 to 60 cents a pound. “It ain’t potatoes,” he says. “It’s not something you’re trying to just fill your belly with.”
In the market, look for asparagus with firm stalks and tightly furled tips. It’s much better if it’s stored with its base in water. When you get it home, wrap the bases in wet paper towels, then put the whole thing in a tightly sealed plastic bag.
