Karen Wils photo Wild asparagus frying with a trout and butter.

ESCANABA — It’s a green gift from the spring rains.

It’s a tasty treat like no other. Years ago, it was referred to as the “royal vegetable.”

Pull on your hiking boots. It is time to go treasure hunting in the fields, meadows and along country lanes.

May is “National Asparagus Month.” Michigan is one of the biggest producers of asparagus. Asparagus festivals are held annually downstate, complete with an asparagus queen, asparagus recipe contests and a “Spear-it” 5K run.

Asparagus is not a vegetable that I grew up with. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there were a lot of beans, peas, carrots and beets on our dinner plates. Asparagus was expensive. I remember seeing a photo of a plate on asparagus in my mother’s Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

The green spears were in a neat pile with all of the tops facing one way. Hollandaise sauce was drizzled all across the vegetable. I thought they were some weird kind of green beans.

The first time I ever tried asparagus it came out of a can. It was mushy and pale green. It was OK, but nothing like fresh, firm spears just plucked from the earth.

Asparagus is not native to North America. It is a transplant that originated in Eurasia. Early settlers brought dried asparagus roots or “crowns,” as they are called to the new world, with them. Once planted in the fertile, slightly-salty soil, the plant flourished. In early spring, the plant sends up spears of new growth. This is when asparagus is harvested for eating. Some spears are left to grow into a feathery fern like plant that will mature and produce tiny red berries containing the seeds.

The red berries are poisonous to humans, but not to birds. Birds love asparagus seeds. They feast on them and then they perch on power lines and fence posts and do their thing. The bird droppings contain asparagus seeds that land on the ground below and grow into new plants the next year.

That is how we get what is known today as wild Michigan asparagus. Folks who look for wild asparagus search around old homesteads, around telephone poles, old fence lines and along country roads.

After the first warm rains in May, asparagus pokes up in rural fields. As soon as the lilacs open, asparagus is ready to be harvested.

My dad first tasted and fell in love with asparagus when he was in the army. It was more popular in the southern states back then.

In the 1980s, my Uncle Bob discovered the fun of hunting for wild asparagus. In his pickup truck he would cruise down country roads on his way to go fishing and he would spot wild asparagus in his travels. He would even mark the “good spots” with a ribbon and return springtime after springtime.

Back in those days, I would hike the whole north shore and come back with handfuls of asparagus.

Nothing was a better delicacy then a freshly caught trout and a bunch of asparagus fresh picked in the morning, simmering in a frying pan with butter.

Asparagus is a healthy treat high in fiber, vitamins K, C, and E, plus it contains folic acid and beta-carotene.

Lightly covered with olive oil and grilled outside is my favorite way to enjoy asparagus. Get it from the wild or get it from the garden or the grocery store. It is the season for awesome asparagus.

——

Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.