Talk:Asparagus

I've read that asparagus is a diuretic due to its high potassium levels, possibly worthy of a mention? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ClarkMills (talk • contribs) 03:40, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

The plural and singular forms of the word are both asparagus

I see asparagus has its own family. I always thought it was part of the lily family.

Is there any truth to the urban legend (rural legend?) about asparagus being more hardy in salty soil than most other economically useful plants?

Yep - it's native to seashores, so asparagus beds were traditionally 'salted' so that normal weeds could not survive. FlagSteward 01:56, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Is there any particular reason there's nothing at "Asparagus", which simply redirects here? It would seem like it should either be at "Asparagus" or have a Disambiguation page there if there are other things also called "Asparagus".

Where is it cultivated?

I think there should be a concise overviev here regarding the places all over the world where asparagus is grown, just in order to show how popular asparagus is around the world. BTW: Is asparagus also grown in the U.S.?

What? Yes, asparagus is grown (and loved) in Canada and the US.--Flying fish 00:37, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I see no mention of the fact that asparagus is a perennial, which I believe is very rare for vegetables. BrianHFL 01:14, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Eat with hands?

I've grown up in Southern California and haven't ever heard of eating asparagus with hands. Am I just uncultured, or is it less common than the article suggests?

I hadn't heard of it either, but I've now learned that it apparently used to be _mandatory_ to eat it with your hands!--Flying fish 00:37, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I - being from Belgium and being an amateur of aspargus - have never seen anyone eat aspargus with their hands. If it is common anywhere it certainly isn't in western europe.. From where does this assumtion come? Fisheke 17:56, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I remember seeing a cookbook from Time Life, where the illustration showed the person taking the aspargus with her hand and dipping in the sauce. Unfortunately I don't have the book with me, anymore. SaintCahier 20:11, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

It's instructive to see the results of both these google searches: http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=how+to+eat+asparagus&meta= http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=comment+manger+asperges&meta= There are a lot references to eating with the fingers, but the subject is seemingly a little controversial. SaintCahier 20:23, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm from Spain and also have never heard of eating asparagus with hands, nor ever seen it... It just seems a bit messy.

Well, I from England & I regularly see people eating asparagus with their hands! As stated in the article, it is one of the few things that is socially acceptable to use your hands to eat. Markb 07:28, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Possibly it's not great manners, but asparagus is kind of made to be picked up. Kind of like a chicken leg, it just works. It's better if not cooked too much though. BrianHFL 01:13, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

You may pick up and eat asparagus if it is served in the proper manner. It's part of cultural lore (at least in some socialogical cirlces) that polite diners, even ladies all dressed up in their finery at a well-appointed table, commonly eat asparagus by picking them up from a side plate and dipping the tips in a small, personal bowl of hollandaise, delicately eating the tips (and only the tips, mind you) in a dignified, particular and carfeul manner. On the other hand, I think most most of you are correct: one is not supposed to chase it around the dinner plate, digging one out from underneath the mashed potatoes and roast beef juices to hungrily shove it in his mouth, voraciously gobbling it down while gripping a can of beer in the other hand, making sure to make lip-smacking finger/licking noises like some uncouth American eating greasy fried chicken while wearing his three-day underway and watching 'football' or wrastlun. Good Lord.DocEss 16:54, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

LOL I totally agree! Also the statement is too general as with different cultures there are different customs.24.83.178.11 00:21, 7 February 2007 (UTC)KnowledgeSeeker

Strange. I never would eat asparagus with my hands at a fancy dinner, but the latter description much better describes when I might decide to eat asparagus with my fingers.75.72.215.207

History and grammar... confusion!

From History:

"Asparagus gained popularity in France in England in the 16th Century..."

Ok, so is it "in France and England", or should one of those countries not be there? I am not a vegetable historian so I don't know!  ;)

Rassilon 04:03, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Large stalks

"Unlike most vegetables, where the smaller and thinner are the more tender, thick asparagus stalks have more tender volume to the proportion of skin."

NO NO NO! Large stalks are like a rope. They have tougher fibers as they get older. This explains the baseball bats people foist on me at the market. Any comment? Dominick ^(TALK) 14:30, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Besides, "more tender volume to the proportion of skin" just don't make no damn sense. Tenderness is not measurable by volume. --funkendub

The larger ones get a lot more fiber. Maybe thats what I mean. Dominick ^(TALK) 17:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm also skeptical, but I have seen it claimed that thicker asparagus stalks are better, for one reason or another. One asparagus trade group even bluntly says "The larger the diameter, the better the quality!", although they aren't quite an unbiased source. --Delirium 05:16, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Dominick is right. The larger the stalk, the tougher it is. The fibers are much more rope-like in thicker stalks. "better" could mean higher in fiber (or fibre), which is probably healthier. When served in "nice" restaurants you'll almost always see small tender shoots. Supposedly the tips are more prized, but I like the whole stalk. BrianHFL 01:18, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Dominik is certainly correct: the larger ones have a woody character that just gets more bitter and spongy as the size increases. Dark green, thin, long ones are the best because they are the most tender and flavouful. So, if you see these in the stuper-market, please leave them for me and you can go eat those giant green trunks of 'celery.' We need to edit this Article to ensure that people know which 'guses are the best 'guses!DocEss 16:59, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Nutrition

Does being grown without access to light affect the nutritional value of white asparagus?

Freezing

The article says that the Romans were freezing asparagus in 200BC. I think an explanation of this may be useful as it seems highly improbable. Was it taken up in the mountains en masse, or was there a freezing device available etc?

I clarified the freezing reference, which was from here. However, it would be good to get the original reference, rather than a modern webpage. -- WormRunner 23:15, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Urine Odour

Someone had written this: According to Zach Zellmer (a leading resologist in the area) it also makes one's urine smell peculiar. This is believed to be due to the breakdown of the amino acid methionine, which causes the production of the sulphur-containing methylmercaptan. This theory can be viewed along with another at http://www.asparagus.org/maab/faq.html Then, someone else removed it but he shouldn't have - this information is accurate and I can personally attest to it. I've always been fascinated by asparagus's ability to alter the odour.DocEss 17:50, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Ooops - scratch that - it is indeed included in the article but was included twice. Superfluous, I believe too.DocEss 17:53, 22 October 2006 (UTC)DocEss 17:55, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

--

Here's the relevant paragraph from the reference:

Allison and McWhirter first showed that the ability to produce methyl mercaptan after eating asparagus is not universal. Some people would produce detectable amounts in the urine after eating only three or four spears of asparagus, while others would produce none even after eating as much as one pound (0.45 kg) of asparagus. In their random sample of 115 human subjects, they demonstrated that this ability occurred in about 40% of the population, with an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. In a larger study of 800 volunteers, Mitchell and co-workers verified these findings in both men and women, and from a pedigree analysis of two families, with one spanning three generations, the autosomal dominant mode of inheritance was also confirmed. Interestingly, the BMJ later reported a study in which all the subjects could produce methyl mercaptan, but their ability to smell it in the urine differed. Those who were able to smell the odour in their own urine could smell it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus irrespective of whether or not that person could smell it. The authors suggested that the ability to smell these substances in one's or, indeed, another's urine was also genetically determined.

The summary on the wiki page completely misrepresents this. Two studies, one shows variation in production, a later study says production is universal (if varying) but ability to smell varies. This is not at all the "no correlation" that the article claims.

The references in the article are correct, but the article is wrong. What we know is that there exist a) people who produce methyl mercaptan and can smell it both in their own urine and in other producers' urine, b) people who can produce methyl mercaptan but cannot smell it in their own, or other producers' urine c) people who cannot produce methyl mercaptan, but can detect it in the urine of those who produce it, and d) people who can neither produce methyl mercaptan nor detect it in the urine of people who produce it.

The confusion is because the newspaper article http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1576765,00.html was only about a study of mercaptan producers, which demonstrated that group b) existed. Before, some people denied the existence of groups b) and d) and thought the matter was one of production alone.

Persian origin of the word

Does someone has a good source for the persian origin??: "This term itself derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos, and the Greek term originates from the Persian asparag,"? The German standard dictionary for etymology (Kluges et. Wörterbuch) doesnt believe it, see edits in the German WP. Plehn 19:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Are The Berries Illustrated Edible?

This article is very incomplete. The illustration used shows that asparagus makes berries of some sort. The article does not mention them in any way. Basically there is no botanical information on asparagus in this article. Someone needs to fix that.24.83.178.11 09:36, 5 February 2007 (UTC)KnowledgeSeeker

Origens

Can anyone track down what part of the world asparagus originates from?--Chuckygobyebye 05:32, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Lily family?

A part of this article says that asparagus are in the lily family, and I would believe it if not for the taxobox at the start that says they are something like asparagacae, not liliaceae.66.41.66.213 19:42, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

I was actually confused myself on this untill I saw this on Asparagaceae "Asparagaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been recognized by quite a few taxonomists, but hardly universally: often the plants involved are treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae" Witch means they are mostlly reconized as being in the lily family. Latulla 03:56, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

External Links

I have augmented and slightly revised the entries. I moved the list of Asparagus species to the WP "Asparagus genus" article, made the page-title presentation uniform, added the WP-policy format note to the PDF file, and tacked on a few links. (Full disclosure: I maintain the linked for home-growing information). If anyone has any questions or comments on any of the changes, please post them here.

Eric Walker 21:00, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Asparagus Hunting?

Am I the only person in the world who goes hunting for wild asparagus? I live in rural South Dakota, and lots of people around here look for and collect the wild asparagus to eat. Should that be included in the article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yipely (talk • contribs).

Great idea! Include it.CApitol3 16:01, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

I think that, like everything else on Wikipedia, information should be backed up by a reliable source. It's interesting to read about people collecting wild asparagus, but if you write about your own experiences, that would be original research. Wild asparagus are typically collected everywhere they grow, so I think it would be more appropriate to simply detail the places where they do. —msikma (user, talk) 06:14, 25 June 2007 (UTC)