Eating Weeds

Back in the day of little country roads, the roadsides were left to Mother Nature to maintain.  No one bothered to mow them neatly or spray them for weeds.  Consequently, they were perfect for my favorite spring time chore.  Asparagus hunting!


My father spent a good bit of time riding up and down country roads as he delivered furniture around the county.  As he wandered he would keep an eye out for the tall, ferny fronds of asparagus.  This asparagus was abundantly planted by the birds that ate the bright, red berries from the fern in the fall.  They then deposited the seeds (complete with fertilizer!)  as they sat in bushes or fences up and down the roads.  Over time these seeds sprouted and matured into healthy asparagus beds in the area between the roads and fields that was left unplowed or mowed.  The plants sprouted early in the spring and if left unpicked would grow all summer into tall, delicately ferny fronds.  At this stage they are easily spotted from a moving vehicle.  My father would then take careful note of the size of the stands and the location for the next spring's hunt.


Sometime in late April or early May, Daddy would arrive home from work and announce that it was time to go asparagus hunting! 


Off we would go driving to the first of his "special" spots.  Parking on the side of the road, Daddy and I would jump out and begin the "hunt".  This involved looking for last years dead stalks or scanning the roadsides for the slender green stalks just sprouting out of the ground.  The best was to find a stand of dead stalks because that indicated a well established patch that would yield several fat (or skinny) stalks of fresh asparagus.  We would kick away last years dead growth and run our fingers as far down the short, fat stalks as we could to get to the tender, white bottoms.   The skinny stalks were bent until they naturally broke at the tender point.  The really tall, tough stalks were broken off to make the roots keep sending up new shoots.


If we were lucky we could talk my older sister into coming along.  She wouldn't get out of the car for love or money...too many wiggly, creeping things out there for her!  However, she would read a book until we whistled, then move the car on down the road as we wandered and hunted.


Our "hunts" would yield enough fresh asparagus to feed us happily until the season ended. We would feast like kings on asparagus with hollandaise sauce, asparagus casseroles, or asparagus with lemon butter or cheese.


Our roadside ramblings did cause a few raised eyebrows and some interesting situations.  Not everyone quite understood our obsession or that we would eat weeds from the ditches.  (Although, having raised domestic asparagus in my garden for years, I can assure you that our roadside asparagus was exactly like my home grown!)


On one such occasion a local lady approached daddy on a slow afternoon in his furniture store.  Daddy was sitting in a rocking chair enjoying a rest in the breeze from the open door.  The good woman walked in and Daddy jumped up to see if she needed any help.  "No-o-o" she drawled, hesitantly.  "Well, what can I do for you?" questioned Daddy, intrigued by her manner. 


She shuffled her feet a little, and quietly responded.  "Mr. Gaines, I know times are hard.  I guess people just don't need as much new furniture as they once did."  Puzzled now, Daddy replied, "Well, you know we do have a fine supply of used furniture that wouldn't be quite as expensive as new."  Becoming even more flustered, she said.  "Oh, I don't mean I need something, but that business must be bad for you!"  Then she floundered on, "I mean, I saw you and your girls out on the roadside collecting bottles for the deposit and wanted you to know that our church has a little fund if you need money that badly."


Choking back laughter, and not wanting to offend a possible future customer, he managed to reassure her that while things might be a little slow, he wasn't quite reduced to collecting bottles for the 5 cent deposit to pay the bills!


I'm sure she was convinced he was just too proud to accept the help offered.  Especially if he explained that we were picking weeds for supper!