In March I was in Calabria visiting my family and did a little wild asparagus hunting with my cousin… if you’ve read some of my posts, you know I like to forage for “wild things” so yesterday when E and I were out on a hike with Dexter (our Italian Labrador…. you mean you didn’t know about Italian Labradors??!) We decided to gather some dandelions for lunch and while I was picking and E was taking pictures, the conversation went something like this:

E: how about some asparagus?

Me: What?… did you say asparagus?  You must be mistaken.

E: No, these are asparagus.

Me: I don’t think so, there’s no asparagus around here.

E: I know what asparagus look like.

Me: HOLY S*&%!!

If you’ve seen the video and the photos of the wild asparagus we found in Calabria you can see the difference.  These asparagus look like the ones you would find in the supermarket.  I remember going asparagus hunting with my father when I was young.  He told me that there used to be an asparagus farm in the fields where we would find them, so the asparagus were thick.  There’s a neighborhood in that field now but I assume that there might be a similar story behind these since it was an old farm that has since been donated as a wilderness reserve…  whatever the story, it’s A-OK with E and me because we’re having asparagus for dinner!

I’m finally back from Italy and have been looking forward to posting.  I wanted to post while I was there but between family, friends and eating there was little time… not to mention my lack of Internet access.  Anyway it rained a lot but my cousin Alessandro and I took advantage of the few sunny days we had and went foraging for wild asparagus.  As you know from some of my past posts… I like to get in the woods to find wild mushrooms but this time a year in Calabria it’s wild asparagus.

My Aunt makes a delicious frittata!