Time to freeze Asparagus

Hello everyone!

My most favourite asparagus grower will be delivering the first of their harvest this Wednesday, June 17th. I find the variety that they grow to be exceptionally tender and sweet AND they do a great job of cutting of the tougher bits at the end of the stalks. They had some red river flooding on their fields this spring so they are not too certain for how long they will be harvesting this year. They are uncertain as to any root stock damage that may have occured during the flooding.

So my advise would be, if you would like to freeze locally grown asparagus, get it done within the next ten days.

How to freeze asparagus
Rinse your asparagus well, trim to the size that you would like the frozen spears to be.
I like to blanch my asparagus (plunge in boiling water) for no more than one minute, then let dry on tea towles until cool enough to bag and freeze
Though the common reccomendation is to blanch for 3 minutes, then plunge in cold water to stop the cooking process before bagging and freezing.

Once yoy have blanched your asparagus you can
1. bag in freezer bags in sizes appropriate for you family's meal
2. lay out on a cookie sheet, place in a chest freezer until frozen, then bag and replace in the freezer. This method will allow you to take out as many spears from the freezer as you would like at one time.

The local morel mushrooms still haven't really started in earnest, but the BC morels have been very tasty. Pickers tell me that the locally grown ones will be ready in a week or so.

Enjoy the sunshine!!

Take Care
Erin
Let asparagus