Short and Sweet

The asparagus season is upon us but blink and you'll miss it. Often thought of as a luxury due to it's short growing season the supermarket will have neatly packed bundles of perfectly straight and equal length spears and a price to match.

Luckily for me New Farm near Lichfield is an asparagus grower and you can visit their farm where the not so perfect but still very delicious asparagus is available at a very pretty price. You can see the fields where it grows and still have a choice of what grade you'd like to buy and as well as the asparagus they have a range of locally produce and soon will have their own fresh raspberries and strawberries available.

Sean used ours to make us a classic and very delicious lunch last week....

New Farm asparagus with Parma Ham, Parmesan and a poached egg.

But if you need any inspiration this is a great website for all things asparagus-y including the history, recipes and tips on how to grow your own.

My top top - via my Mum :-) is to freeze the woody ends (minus the very ends which have gone a bit brown where they have been cut) and used them chopped up next time your making a chicken pie, they give you lots of flavour and the slow cooking will make them tender.