It grows 8 centimetres in a day and is one of the sweetest in the world. We picked Czech asparagus from Hostín!
We arrive at the agricultural area in Hostin u Vojkovic. On one hundred and eighty hectares of land, they grow several varieties of green and white asparagus, which are in demand all over the world. The Czech Asparagus Company is the only large producer in the country, harvesting up to 300 tonnes of crispy stalks. Does that seem like a lot to you? In neighbouring Germany, the harvest reaches 114 000 tonnes. Let's get out into the fields!
Strong asparagus
"Asparagus is a hardy plant and can survive in difficult conditions. It is protected from weeds and pests by aspartic acid which causes the typical taste of the vegetable and the smell of urine after eating asparagus dishes," says Jiří Šafář, co-founder of Český asparagus, and adds. These protect the plants from fungi."
We move further into the fields and learn the story of the asparagus that was ploughed up as a survival in Hostin after the Second World War. It started growing again in the 1990s thanks to the Dutch, who successfully exported it abroad, while the Czechs bought inferior asparagus from imports. In 2012, the Dutch company Czech Asparagus took over.
"The first harvest is three years away. The seedlings need time to harden off and to grow out of the 'clods' of soil they are covered with. The young asparagus plants are left to starve for two years so that they can feed themselves deeper in the soil and thus gain better immunity," says Jiří, leading us between the wide rows where the plants have plenty of space. Each one only produces about twenty shoots a year. Can you imagine how many have to be planted around Hostín?
A dark mystery
Without much coaxing, we try to cut the white asparagus, which, unlike the green asparagus, ripens underground and is also harvested when covered, with a special 'long knife'. When exposed to light, photosynthesis takes place in the stems, and the asparagus changes colour. Within half an hour it takes on a purple tinge, and when grown above ground it turns green. However, the white and green varieties differ not only in colour but also in taste.
To get asparagus, we first need to uncover the white and black sails, which either cool or warm the soil and thus regulate the growing conditions. The sheets can be used to speed up ripening. However, we run the risk that the asparagus will grow too quickly, get a temperature shock and turn bitter," points out Jiří, showing how to properly harvest the white treasure.
Biting into a juicy shoot is a treat! "The asparagus from Hostín is considered one of the sweetest in the world, and it owes this to the terroir of the Mělník region where the subsoil is made up of sandy soil, opuka and chernozem. The unique taste characteristics of asparagus are also influenced by the cooler climate and slow growth,' says Jiří.
This explains why the more northerly regions of Beelitz and Holland are renowned for their asparagus, which is rivalled by the Czech asparagus. However, spring vegetables do not benefit from temperatures below 15 °C, and asparagus contains more than 90 % water, which would freeze and tear the stems.
It's a quick fix!
On the edges of the fields we pass workers with boxes of asparagus. Stems grow 8 cm in a single day and must be harvested as quickly as possible. The employees are therefore on standby and once they get to work, they have about two hours to collect the shoots and take them straight to the shed.
"Once cut, the asparagus burns its sugars and turns bitter as a defence mechanism. White asparagus is particularly susceptible and must therefore be removed within two hours of picking. It must be immersed in a water bath and refrigerated for 24 hours at 3 °C. This stops burning and bittering," says Jiří, offering us one last chance to taste green asparagus that was not picked in time. At the hall, he says, we will compare the difference in taste between the first-class harvest.
At the sorting plant
From the field, we head to an agricultural area with several sheds where the asparagus is first stripped of impurities. The white stalks are washed in water after cooling, but the green ones would be damaged by washing. The growers often use rainwater, which can be returned to the field. "No worries. Asparagus husks are disinfectant," Jiří reassures us as he hands us a prized type of white asparagus straight from the vat. "Note that they don't need to be peeled yet. The unpleasant texture only sets in after two days."
Vegetables are sorted into different categories, not just by variety. The belt also includes a machine that takes pictures of each batch of asparagus and creates a database for buyers. They can view and select the goods in it.
Asparagus mania
Shipments of asparagus, mostly green, pile up at the exit of the hall. "Green asparagus is enjoying a huge boom on the world market, taking up 60% of all fields here," says Jiří, noting that in London alone, as many green stalks are consumed every week as are produced in the Czech Republic in a whole year. "White asparagus is also coming back into the limelight, but there is still not as much interest in it. In Germany, the annual consumption is around 2.5 kg per person, while Czechs can only afford about 300 g."
Around Hostín, eight varieties of asparagus are grown, including the original purple variety. It comes from Asia and does not like the Czech climate very much, so it is not economically worthwhile for growers. Up to 12% sugar flows in the sweet stems and the beautiful colouring of the plant stands out in the preparation and decoration of dishes. "Don't confuse the purple variety with white stems that have turned purple due to sunlight," Jiří warns:
"On our planet, there are a number of specially bred varieties including purple or purple-green. It's not just about the colour! It's not just a matter of taste, it's breeding for flavour and in recent years the aim has been to higher asparagus to be more resistant."
Beer or pesto?
Finally, Jiří shares his culinary intentions with us. Although fresh asparagus is irreplaceable, the company is trying to find other ways to use it and to process vegetable "waste" as well, especially since it makes up around 20 to 30% of the volume. "We send the trimmings back to the fields and sell the broken stems, the so-called 'breaks', as a lower grade for soups or purees," Jiří says, excitedly opening a jar of white asparagus pickled in sour water.
Our non-designated drivers are also testing Chřestýš, a beer brewed at the Němý medvěd brewery from dried husks. Similarly, there are plans to make use of green asparagus that is not suitable for sale. The heads could be ground into a pesto with olive oil, sunflower seeds, parmesan and basil. Jiří's only concern is the asparagus stalk, which he tries in vain to produce in cooperation with the Žufánek distillery: 'The sugar content of the stems drops so quickly after cutting that after a few hours you can't burn them. But I won't give up!"
A well-deserved rest
The asparagus season lasts until the end of June. Over the summer, the plants are then allowed to grow freely until they have killed off all the weeds around them and hidden the rows under dense vegetation. This is chopped up with a tractor in the autumn and ploughed into the soil as organic matter.
"The life span of asparagus in the fields at Hostín is exceptionally long because we farm on healthy soil that is hardly fertilised. Chemical fertilisers would seep through the sandy soil into the river and pollute the surrounding area," explains Jiří, who has opted for integrated production and is giving the fields time to rest. "After about seven years, the asparagus field is levelled to the ground to rest for another seven years and gain strength for the next stage," Jiří concludes our journey to find the raw material.
Did you know that...?
The Hostín model of asparagus cultivation was invented by Mr. Schuster, who started growing asparagus in the Mělník region. Using ploughshares, he piled dirt on the plants, simulating the practice traditional in the Moravian town of Ivančice, where asparagus was covered with a pot with a hole to grow in the light.
Only male plants can be planted in the fields! The females are pollinated in Holland, from where the seeds are sold all over Europe. As soon as growers discover a female shoot with seeds in a field, they must report it and burn the asparagus, as the right to reproduce is appropriated by the Dutch.
