Nature's bounty: asparagus

It's the end of asparagus season here in south-central Montana, but you can still get your money's worth. Just keep an eye out for telltale fronds by the roadside.

But lucky me, I just drove a couple of miles to a friend's ranch, and we took off in her "mule" to hunt wild asparagus that is a little easier to wrangle than that stuff by the road.

We walked a lot because neighbors had already been through and picked the obvious plants, but there was still plenty to gather. I came home with 2 pounds plus another 2 pounds from my friend Christy, who said she was getting sick of asparagus. Go figure.

In some ways, it's easier to find asparagus at the end of the season than at the beginning because all you have to do is look for tall brown fronds. Somewhere beneath those dead branches is the root stock and new spears may be emerging even now.

Green bushy fronds are easy to spot, too, and pretty.

In any case, you might find only one spear, but it could be a beaut.

By the way, thick spears are supposed to be tastier than thin ones. I usually nibble on the tiny ones as I go and they taste fine to me.

Pretty soon, I had enough for at least one meal, maybe two, and most likely I'll have enough to make soup and freeze it for later. Here's a photo of my 2 pounds.

It was a nice day for walking and gathering. Much more fun than going to the store.

I searched online to get some more information and found Alton Brown's Good Eats episode, "The Age of Asparagus," where I learned you should store asparagus straight up in a glass container with about 1 inch of water in the bottom.

Hahaha!

Excuse while I chuckle heartily. Everyone I know who gathers wild asparagus either eats it immediately, or tucks it away in the bottom of the refrigerator in the plastic bag they gathered it into. In my experience, it should be okay like that for a week.

And Alton has some scientific theories about how much to trim off the bottom before cooking. Well, if you have wild asparagus, you just use whatever looks edible, which is most of it.

But I did learn from Alton that asparagus tastes best cooked and that nutmeg has a taste component in it that magnifies taste components in asparagus, so be sure to always add a pinch of nutmeg.

Asparagus has all sorts of good nutrients in it, but I was most impressed to find it is chock-full of folate, which helps your body keep a healthy heart and avoid cancer.

Roasted Asparagus

Easy! Place asparagus spears on a sheet of foil on a pan. Drizzle olive oil over all. Place in a 500-degree oven for 5 minutes. Take out and turn asparagus over. Return to oven for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and a dash of nutmeg.

Plum good

The last of my wild plums went into jam jars today.

Wild plum jam is one of those things you need a big spatula for -- to scrape out every last bit of goodness from pans and bowls right into your mouth. This jam tastes ever so slightly sour, which is awesome with the sweetness.

And homemade jam is one of those things that just gets everywhere and makes everything sticky. Not so good in fly season, which seems to have burgeoned here today. Thus washing those piles of dishes and the countertops is a particular necessity. So is covering sterilized jars and then sticky filled jars with a dish towel while they sit out waiting for the next step.

As you look at my real-life photos of jars sealed with plastic wrap and labeled with masking tape, you'll note that I do not pretend to be one of those clever food blog photographers who know how to adjust lighting and place that shimmering blob of jam off-center just so for the perfect shot.

Nor do I see any need to print out cute clip-art labels to make my shelves or, in this case, freezer, more attractive. My homespun philosophy for just about anything here on the ranch is: use duck tape for general use and masking tape for kitchen use. I learned this from watching my rancher neighbor fix things. If it doesn't work after you hit it with a wrench (or even if it does), wrap it with duck tape.

He doesn't hang out in the kitchen, so I discovered the masking tape thing myself. The bit of tape you've used as a label will neatly peel off, making the jar ready for its next use.

Wild Plum Freezer Jam

Agricultural Extension Agency, Washington State University

3 cups wild plums (finely mashed or sieved*) -- about 3 pounds

6 cups sugar

1 box powdered pectin

1 cup water

Combine fruit and sugar. Let stand about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Put powdered pectin and water into a large pot and boil rapidly for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add the fruit and stir about 2 minutes.

Pour into jars; tighten lids.

Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours or until jelled.

Store in freezer or refrigerator.

Yield: 9 cups

* I pitted my plums and then whirled them in my Vitamix (a blender would work) until skins were in small shreds.

And in the end, the proof of anything you make in the kitchen is in the eating.

Delish.

Plum something . . .

I'm not sure if I made plum sauce, per the recipe I sort of followed, or plum ketchup. Either way, it is tasty and pretty darn near free!

Foraging friend, Jackie, kindly picked a gallon of wild plums for me and thus I ended up with about 5 pounds of delicious fruit. Well, wild plums are kind of tart/sour, but not so bad when fully ripe as they are now.

The plum cake I made a while ago was good, but I wanted something that would last longer. A search on the Internet led me to the FatFree Vegan Kitchen, where I found an enticing Wild Plum Sauce recipe.

Although the recipe says to plop the plums whole into a pan, cover with water, and simmer until the skins pop, then press through a colander, I opted to spend about 10 minutes jabbing the soft fruit with the tip of a knife and slipping out the seed. A large portion of the wild plum is its seed. As you can see in the photo, these plums are small and therefore somtimes called cherry plums.

I cooked the plums for about 15 minutes while I chopped garlic (from my own garden) and ginger root.

I put the plums into my mighty Vitamix and created a wholesome pulp. This went back into the pan, with the garlic and ginger root that I had sauteed per the recipe, stirred in the called-for cayenne, soy sauce, and onion powder, and let simmer for 15 minutes to thicken.

It really thickened! All that skin, I suppose. My advice about this recipe: if you keep the skins on, be prepared to add sugar and salt. I stirred in a fistful or so of brown sugar, which made it "sweet and sour" instead of just "sour."

I doubled the recipe and got about 3 cups of . . . plum stuff.

I'm eating it right away (I do love it on my all-time favorite food, roasted potatoes), but also freezing some. I'm not sure if freezing will really work, so I have my fingers crossed. If it does, I'm set for winter!

Now I still have 3 pounds of plums left. Perhaps I will make freezer jam tomorrow.

Spring bouquet

My friend Jackie phoned this morning to say she was dropping off a spring bouquet on her way to town.

I envisioned tulips and iris and maybe lilacs. Instead, I got asparagus! The first wild asparagus of the season.

Yes, it comes late in south-central Montana but is all the more welcome because of that.

Jackie introduced me to hunting for wild asparagus, although for my first hunt last year, she passed me on to her friend. (See my blog entry on wild asparagus for that story.) She said she didn't want to give away any of her spots.

No matter how close you are to anyone here in Montana, you know better than to ask where they pick huckleberries or find asparagus. They'd rather tell you how much money they make, how they spent Friday night, or how much they weigh.

But I love Jackie. She shares.

Wild asparagus

It took 2 hours but I managed to gather a pound and a half of wild asparagus. Euell Gibbons had it exactly right when he described it as "stalking" the wild asparagus. Harvesting this delectable spring vegetable consists mostly of walking . . . and . . . walking . . . and, yes, walking!

A neighbor led me around her 700-acre ranch to show me how to look for tall brown stalks of last year's asparagus, then push aside grass and weeds to look for the new stalks peeking up. She's also new to hunting for asparagus, but she found lots, and we picked and picked. Once we realized it was growing mostly along the fence, the rest was pretty easy, although the walking continued since only a few stalks grow in any one spot.

Although the season is only about a month (early May to early June), this is a great way to eat real Montana food. If you can see it growing out of the ground, well, for sure it's grown in Montana! Not only is it free, but you get plenty of exercise.

I had enough asparagus when I got home to make about a quart of a kind of cream of asparagus soup, composed of asparagus, potatoes (grown in Joliet, Mont.), and stock, "creamed" with an immersion blender stick, with a dash of salt and dill added. Mmm!

Asparagus Soup

1 onion

1 tablespoon oil

1 large potato

1 cup stock

2 teaspoons dill

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion and saute in oil in a medium-size saucepan until soft.

Cut the potato into small pieces and add to the onion. Add stock and simmer about 15 minutes, until the potato is tender.

Cut the asparagus into 1-inch pieces (tough parts are OK to use) and add to the cooked vegetables. Simmer about 10 minutes, until the asparagus pieces are an olive color.

Put soup in blender (be careful: it's hot!), or use an immersion blender stick in the saucepan, to make a smooth mixture. Stir in the dill and seasonings, and serve.

Makes about 1 quart.