Stalking the Wild Asparagus is a book by American writer Euell Gibson, a seminal text published in 1962 that heralded the revival of eating wild plants for nutritional gain.

His argument was that “gardeners throw away the tastier, more healthful crop when they remove such "weeds" as purslane and amaranth from among their spinach plants.”

60 years later we are still throwing them away, blinded by the idea that commercial varieties are better plants, which is untrue. Go wild, eat better.
So here we are, springtime, and my local country roads in the Central West of NSW are lined with the most amazing treat: wild asparagus!

When I was a young boy in a farm in Northern Italy, the wild asparagus was a must-do of our seasonal wild harvests, we had our spots that we kept ‘secret’, at the edges of the fields and around the old derelict buildings that litter the Italian countryside, and we were sure not to miss the very short season. You only have three/four weeks for these plants, as what you want is the young shoots, before they start flowering. If it was a wet spring there would be basket-full of them, but they would move fast, so if you diddle-daddle, you would come home with only a handful of tender, sweet, crunchy ones. Good reason to get up early and timely.

There are several varieties of asparagus, with few of them edible in Italy, while only one is edible in Australia.

In Italy, we have two varieties that are most commonly harvested, the asparago comune ( Aspargus offcinalis) - which is a wilder version of the one that you can cultivate and buy at the supermarket, and the asparago pungente (Asparagus acutifolius) , which I never had as it it is not found where I grew up, but people swear by it as the most delicious. There are also a number of other varieties that are quite rare, see here for a full rundown of all things wild asparagus in Italy ( sorry, in Italian, use Google Translate if you have to).

Here in Australia, we have several non-edible varieties, including some problematic species declared as noxious weeds, like asparagus fern (Asparagus aethiopicus) and Bridal creeper (Asparagus asparagoides).
Please see here for a rundown of the ‘weedy’ varieties of asparagus.

However, we also have the juicy common wild asparaguses too! Not restricted, not problematic as a weed, and most definitely super yummy.

WHERE TO FIND WILD EDIBLE ASPARAGUS

You will find them along the country roads, at the edge of fields, and along fence lines where there is less grazing happening and where it can enjoy the water run-offs. If you know what you’re looking at, you will spot last year’s growth, kind of dry feathery stalks, check at the base of such bushes you will spot the new shoots.
You can find edible wild asparagus naturalised from southeast Queensland to Tasmania, to South Australia, and then again in southwest Western Australia. See the map here for an idea of where to look. Where I live, in the Central West of NSW, there is the story that most of our wild asparagus are the leftovers of the big Edgell farms around Bathurst, widespread in the 1920s-1940s. The Edgell brothers were the pioneers of canned food in Australia and from Bathurst, NSW, they operated a canning enterprise that fed all of Australia. The Canned asparaguses were their signature products. See here for a little story about their importance in the early 20th Century. Since then, the asparagus-growing farms moved away from the region, but the plants stayed on, at the edge of the fields, for us all to enjoy.

Have a look at the video for some visuals of me and Sam of Renzaglia Wines went out for an early morning harvest. Ah! life in the country :)

HOW TO IDENTIFY ASPARAGUS

Asparagus is a perennial with an annual cycle. This means that every year it dies off to then sprouts again from the roots in springtime. When fully grown -in summer- it looks like a small, twiggy bush, about 1-1.5m tall, with several branches flopping out of a central area. The leaves are tiny and have a feathery appearance. Male and female organs are on separate plants, the male creating flowers, while the female creates flowers and then small, 3-4mm wide red berries scattered on the upper part of the branches. The easiest way to identify the plant is when is fully grown in summer. That’s when you map it, and come back the spring after for the new, crunchy, yummy shoots.

Asparaguses are a great example of the need for your own forager’s map. You make note of the colonies, and write in your calendar the timing (or if you know how to use apps, you can simply drop a pin and set a calendar reminder), as when the shoots are out they are quite hard to spot unless you know where to go. wink wink.

HOW TO HARVEST WILD ASPARAGUS

The best way to harvest is by hand, as in, you feel the stalk, and where it seems crunchy, you snap it. If it snaps it means that it is perfect. Usually, that leaves about 10-20cm of stalks in the ground and by harvesting the new shoots it will promote more growth. This plant grows from year to year, and some gardeners say that the older the root, the bigger the asparagus.
Wild asparagus does not have a great shelf life, which means that you should only harvest what you are going to eat for the next couple of days, as otherwise, they would waste away. Even if you wrap them in a wet towel, and store them in the crisper, you will not get more than 5 days out of them.
Please harvest ethically. There is no point for you to fill your bag if you are not going to manage to eat them in time. Leave the rest for others.

HOW TO COOK WILD ASPARAGUS

It is easy to overdo it. You only ever want to light steam them or quickly toss them in a pan. If you overcook them you will miss the crunchiness, as they are delicious just as such, raw.
Have a look at the links below for some recipes like risotto, omelette, and more. In our house, we simply steam and serve them with some oil, salt, and lemon. Cannot beat fresh, cannot beat wild.

Further research

environment.nsw.gov.au - List of weedy asparaguses
Australian Food Timeline - The story of Edgell’s asparagus
Altovastese.it - About wild asparaguses in Italy (in Italian)
Boulder locavore - Great articles about how to harvest and eat wild asparagus in the USA
Total Croatia - Lots of recipes for wild asparagus from Croatia
Italian Food Forever - Yummy risotto recipe
Fascinating Spain - 5 Recipes from Spain
The Tasmanian Tuxedo - A beautiful story of an Italian asparagus forager in Tasmania
Bie-ala-org.au - Distribution map of Asparagus officinalis in Australia
American History - Stalking the Wild Asparagus book by Euell Gibson
Wikipedia - On asparagus
Foragers Year - Oliver on harvesting and eating wild asparagus in NSW