Asparagus is a lily; this particular plant grows without leaves, sending up stems covered with nettle-y spines, familiar to anyone who has ever had a fern for a houseplant. These spiky cladodes collect the sun's rays and convert it to food. Asparagus is a perennial (lives more than a season) and each plant contains both the male and female reproductive parts, in the plant world this attribute is called being dioecious; not quite as prurient sounding when referring to flora.The crop is available year around but the domestic season runs from March through June with a secondary crop available in the late summer. California grows about 70% to 80% of the asparagus in the US market with Washington and Michigan handling the bulk of the remainder. Surprisingly, or surprising to me, Minnesota is expanding acreage and hopes to become a major producer.
There are different varieties of the vegetable but it is not the kind of asparagus that determines the thick or thinness of a stalk: Specifically the plant sends up shoots from an underground stem. The nearer the asparagus shoot grows to the heart of the stem, the thicker the stalks. The stalks growing on the periphery of the root system tend to be thinner, but the vigor – the age and health the plant along with soil conditions - is also a determining factor on how thick the stalks will be, que sera sera. Additionally, as the season continues and there are fewer nutrients remaining in the corm, the central root mass, the asparagus stalks become thinner.
Besides thick and thin, there are colors of asparagus, the plural of asparagus is asparagus, not asparagi or asparaguses, White asparagus is kept colorless by mounding dirt or covering upon the emerging shoot (or covering with straw) to prevent sunshine turning on the chlorophyll switch in the plant. Spending twice as much per pound will net a purple variety, which looks cool in market displays but the Anthocyanins that tint the plant purple wash out when exposed to heat and liquid leaving the asparagus lover with really expensive green vegetables.
Asparagus are so much more than a side dish. Unlike other veg, where you wonder if it goes with the chicken, asparagus is the star of the plate. People think about what goes with asparagus -you don’t want to overwhelm the sweet and somewhat meaty flavor of the vegetable with other strong flavors, sorry to say my friend bacon. Fish, scallops, shrimp or baked in a tart with caramelized onions and fontina compliment nicely but risotto, frittata, grilled, roasted, sautéed with lemon butter or aioli, served in as a sandwich in baguette with red onion really lets the asparagus be asparagus. As the kids say it’s all good and this time it is actually true – it is all good.
A common orthodoxy is to take the stalk and bend it – this joint is the purported magical divide between edible and inedible. Untrue, there is lots of goodness in the bottom half of the stalk, instead cut a half-inch or so off the bottom, this will remove the woody inedible part. Aficionados claim the plant should be cooked standing up bundled together in a special pot so the tougher base cooks in boiling water as the tips gently steam.
Okay, as much as I am into asparagus, that isn’t going to happen. Instead try blanching - submerge thicker stalks completely, tip and all in - in simmering salted water for about 1 to 2 minutes before sautéing, baking or grilling. All thick asparagus should be peeled, special surgical looking peelers are sold but a regular vegetable peeler works well. Begin a third of the way down the stalk, by peeling away this part, the asparagus will cook evenly and the chewy/stringy texture that detracts from the plant’s goodness will disappear as well. 
Currently, Methylmercaptan is being promulgated as the chemical that introduces the smell factor to urine. This might not be a100% accurate, this compound is chemically related to skunk-stink and it might be the kind of sexy factoid that makes newspaper articles fun. Odds are methylmercaptan is just one of many compounds that causes the aspara-pee smell. Prevailing thought is that everyone produces this notable scent after eating asparagus but a small percentage of people cannot smell it.
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