Asparagus Season Arrives: A Spring and Summer Feast for Britain's Small Farmers

I only started to love asparagus after I moved to the UK.

Strange as it sounds, every year just as spring takes hold and the bright yellow daffodils are opening their buds, the supermarkets roll out the asparagus season banner, and it works every time. But this year Britain has been especially wet and cold, and only recently have the creamy white and emerald green stalks taken their places, bundle by bundle, in carefully arranged wooden baskets, as if to remind us to say goodbye to the hearty winter vegetables and welcome the lush green produce with a lighter touch.

Like the blooming daffodils, asparagus season is fleeting. Britain may not be famous for its cuisine, but precisely because there is so little stimulation from eating out, it instead stirs ordinary people's appreciation for seasonal ingredients, letting a bundle of asparagus shine in the home kitchen!