Despite its reputation, the local crop faces tough competition from the Midwest in the spring and summer.
Michael A. Wissemann, owner of the Warner Farm in Sunderland, shows with some asparagus stalks in one of his fields last week.SUNDERLAND — The rain is pittering on the plastic roof of the greenhouse at Warner Farm. Inside, two workers are taking asparagus from wooden baskets, fitting them into three-sided holders and slicing off the ends. Slipping rubber bands over each bunch, they fit them in a crate. It’s about a pound of asparagus per bunch, they say.
Outside, the rain is pocking the puddles, making them bigger and muddier. You can’t exactly see your breath, but there’s a nip in the air. It’s cool. Too cool for asparagus.
“We’re not getting much,” says farmer Michael Wissemann. “It’s too cold out.”
Wissemann owns and operates Warner Farm in Sunderland, where he grows eight acres of asparagus, two of them organic. The family farm harks back to 1720, and though Wissemann married into it, he knows what asparagus like and don’t like.
The season started promisingly for the splendid shoot, with 80-degree days in March. Wissemann didn’t buy it.
“I think we all knew we were getting set up for a fall,” he says.
Sure enough, spring turned cold, with late frosts and chilly days. Normally, Wissemann says, he starts cutting his asparagus around May 1 and keeps it up until late June. This year he was harvesting in April. How much longer the crop will last is anybody’s guess.
“In warm weather, asparagus will grow eight or nine inches in a day,” he says. “You’ve got to cut what’s coming up or it will start to feather on top.”
So it always is with farmers. Too hot. Too cold. Too wet. Too dry. What’s good for potatoes isn’t necessarily good for asparagus or corn. What will the weather bring? All we can really know is now, and now is asparagus time.
Of all the crops in the valley, asparagus is arguably the most prestigious. The area has been long famous for the slender green shoot and asparagus lovers await the season like kids await Christmas.
Despite its reputation, the local crop faces tough competition from the Midwest in the spring and summer. Southern countries, among them Peru and Chile, keep the supermarket shelves stocked in the colder months.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture made $15 million available to asparagus growers across the country to take the sting away from losses to importers. Pioneer Valley farmers saw a little bit of that money.
“It didn’t really make much of a difference to any of us,” says Wissemann, who sells to local vendors and at farmers markets.
On the plus side, people hereabouts know their asparagus and are willing to pay for the good stuff.
“Fortunately for us, there’s a good local market,” Wissemann says.
Across Route 47 from Warner Farm, Millstone Farm Market sells Wissemann’s asparagus for $4.50 a bunch, advertising it as “Mike’s Grass.”
“As much as we ask for we sell,” says Sheri Rosenblum, part of the family that owns the market. “It seems to be one of those vegetables that people who know better are willing to wait for as local produce. It’s so much better fresh.”
Jeff Rosenblum, her brother, then issues what could be a battle cry in the Great Asparagus War, declaring that Sunderland asparagus is the cream of the crop.
“I don’t believe Hadley’s the best,” he says.
Down the road, Karen Smiarowski seconds that, maintaining that the soil in Sunderland is richer and heavier than the Hadley soil and, thus, creates sweeter asparagus.
“It’s more like a fruit than a vegetable,” she says.
At $3.50 a bunch, Smiarowski claims to have the cheapest asparagus in the area. Her regulars come to the farm stand on Route 47 for asparagus, well, regularly.
“You have your regulars who come every other day and the ones who come every weekend,” she says.
Lest there be any doubt how important asparagus is to neighboring Hadley, you can drive a few miles down to the road and read the sign in front of the North Hadley Congregational Church: “Asparagus supper,” it says. “May 12.” Further down the road the unmanned Boisvert Farm Stand is selling asparagus for $4 a bunch on the honor system. Customers take their shoots and put their money in a metal box.
At Wanczyk’s Farm Stand on Route 9, the price is $5 a bunch. Not to worry, says Karen Costa. The six trays of asparagus, some 100 bunches, will be gone by day’s end.
“We sell out every day,” she says.
Wanczyk, which has been in business for nearly 30 years, buys its asparagus from five local farms, and Costa is not about to cede the gold ribbon to Sunderland lightly.
“I’ve never tried Sunderland’s,” she says. “I just know Hadley’s asparagus is awesome.”