“So far it’s looking the same as it has all winter. The field isn’t dry enough yet to take off the old fern.”
Elna Edgar is talking about the patch of what she describes as a quirky member of the lily family on the Edgar family farm near Innisfail. To call it a patch, from one acre in 1986 to 28 acres now, is a bit of a misnomer. “Our daughter Keri and her husband Randy were able to come back to the farm in 2007 due to the asparagus.”
It wasn’t always this way. The Edgars operate a mixed Alberta farm: a cow/calf operation; wheat, barley and canola; 15 acres in peas, broad beans, rhubarb and green and yellow beans — all hand picked, and they produce several delicious relishes, pickles and pie.
“In 1986 we started looking into growing asparagus on our farm. They were testing it at the government station in Brooks. Their verdict? It wasn’t a commercially viable crop in Alberta. And, really it isn’t.
“Peru is the best place in the world to grow asparagus for volume. We went there to see how they do it. They pick when the price is high, for about six weeks. Price drops, they stop picking, and let the plants fern for about eight weeks.
By that time the price is up again and they’ll start picking again for three to four weeks.
“Our climate doesn’t allow that. We pick for six weeks. We’ll start sometime in May anywhere from the 5th to 25th depending on the year, then we have to stop picking at the end of June. The plants have to go to fern stage and have at least eight frost-free weeks developing ferns to get through the winter. Our climate also means the asparagus tastes better. Our cool nights and slow growth produces asparagus that is jam packed with flavour.”
Along with poor yields, at least by world standards, there’s the labour. “It’s a huge cost”, says Elna. ”We have 15 people here everyday for eight-10 hours a day. In Peru, their economy is such that people are delighted to work for a dollar.”
After being told it wasn’t commercially viable, the Edgars developed an acre in asparagus, which they sold at central Alberta markets.
“We had 250 pounds of surplus that we wanted to sell. We didn’t know what to do with it so we thought: let’s try Edmonton. People threw money at us. At the end of the day I went to the manager of the market, and said ‘We’re going home to plant more asparagus. We’ll be back in five years with enough to supply this market.’
”Really, if it wasn’t for Edmonton, we would not be growing asparagus.”
And we asparagus-loving Edmontonions would be much poorer for it.
Where to find Edgar Asparagus
Old Strathcona: May 5 with asparagus, maybe, pickles, relish and soup for sure.
City Market 104 Street: May 19 until end of the asparagus season.
Callingwood Market: dates TBA depending on when the crop comes up.
Sherwood Park Baseline: Wednesday nights from mid-July with vegetables and preserves at the Innisail Growers stand.
Edgar Farms Asparagus
Festival: Get into the ‘SPEAR IT’ of Spring! June 2-3. More information in DISH.