How Farmers Transform Green Asparagus Into 'White Gold' | So Expensive | Insider Business 

I didn't realize white asparagus is not commonly known outside of europe. It's so interesting for me, because here it's a normal thing.

I've been growing my own white asparagus here in the U.S. for ages, but since I'm just a small-scale homestead, I use plant pots to cover them up and keep them from going green. I had no idea they could fetch such a high price here. Maybe I should call that Spargel guy up in New York and start scaling up my production. Lol

I grew up in the lower Rhine region of Germany close to the dutch border. Nobody had green asparagus. White was the norm and 1kg was about 5.00. Chopp off the thick bottom and shave off the skin. That as already the base for stock. Shave down the tender stalks and the shavings are base for asparagus stock and the blender. The even stalks were simmered in water with a wee of white wine and soritz lemon, wrapped in cold real Kochschinken, served with cooked potatoes ad just drizzled with melted unsalted butter. A fine feast on summer Sunday lunches during Spargelseason. Yum food memories ❤❤🎉

My parents grow white asparugus and i can tell you from experience. Those massive thick ones he praises are the worst you van get. The best tasting and tender ones are like half that size and way more expensive.

I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and had never heard of white asparagus until I studied abroad in Germany while in college. My flat mate made us a wonderful going away breakfast of white asparagus, pancakes (thinner than American but thicker than a crepe), ham and hollandaise sauce. I see white asparagus in the store every once in a while but I’ve never tried to recreate that magical meal.

I'm a Chef from Germany and i grew up with asparagus and sauce hollandaise. It's dang delicious. Absolutely love the dish.

I work at a Dutch greengrocer, here white asparagus are known as just asparagus and the green ones are known as green asparagus. We have tons of customers who happily pay 15 euros for half a kilo of asparagus (white ones). People always get sad when the season ends :(

As soon as I saw the title of the video, I knew it was going to take place in Germany! We just love the stuff

Here in France the price of the white asparagus is determined a lot by the size and the season, you can find them cheap if they are thin and at the mid season.

Never seen somebody love asparagus as much as this man

Thank you Insider for this video! living and working here in Germany for years, seeing this beautiful asparagus every springtime season here.Where People here are so hyped about this vegetable. 😁

Wow I never knew this, grew up eating white asparagus almost every week with a salad and never knew they were expensive, so weird

FYI: The tool to harvest asparagus called "Spargelstecher" literally translates to "asparagus stabber"

10 days of shelf life is rough, no wonder why my wife never even heard of these until I told her about them. I grew up in Germany and used them eat them all the time. Lecker!

This dude has a legit Asparagus peeling technique. I had so much respect for my gran peeling these once I tried it, I later found out she bought them pre-peeled. It's weird seeing this common it this context

Katja is one of my favorite spots when I visit the LES!

So the farmers in Germany rely on foreign workers to come and cut and skin them. During corona no one could come over. A farmer near us told the locals to come and dig up all the white asparagus for free. I’ve still got kilos of frozen in my freezer. “Skinning” them is shit work though.

I worked in top restaurants in Germany, and come spargel seasons it just mad. Love it with some butter

My asparagus patch is planted from the wild varieties I collect from the roadside in the Ozarks. We love the flavor of wild green asparagus.

4:15 THIS ANIMATED VISUAL IS AWESOME!!!

Also when you make asparagus the way shown in this video never throw away the stock after boiling it. Just melt sone butter with flower and at the asparagus stock. Season to taste and voila, you have a nice asparagus soupe as a starter for your meal. Also perfect to be frozen for the time you cant get asparagus anymore :)

Love the Narration.

Ive never heard of white asparagus. Fascinating

Green asparagus are best grown in tropical countries. The fragrance is heavenly!

I randomly saw this in Whole Foods and I’m in Canada, I bought 2 packs! Soo good

The ones from Navarra are mouthwatering💫

first German video here and its asparagus haha...so typical. cant wait for the Beer one :P

I don't consider white asparagus as a luxus item but tjat may be because I grew up with it. The only problem I have is that the time you can eat it fresh is so short😢

Asparagus grows like it's trying to prank some idiot into thinking this is how asparagus grows

I first found out about this while stationed in Northern Germany. I saw acres of it. I was wondering what that was growing under the mounds of dirt. This was backing in the early 80's.

Here in lower Michigan we have white, purple, and green asparagus. I buy all 3 and mix for a colorful dish!

Like Calçots, same growing method and has it's own festival too.

For Homemade plumbuses, always push your dinglebop through a grumbo so your fleeb doesn’t fill up with its own juice

Chef is a cool guy😊

That crunch!

i love how my fellow german just goes absolutely nuts over his spargel lol

I remember ordering asparagus in Switzerland and being very confused why it was white. But Spargelzeit is the best time of year

love white asparagus!

Looks delicious

I tasted them for first time in Karlskron, Bavaria. Delicious.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm white asparagus....LUV it!!!

as a german i eat asparagus (spargel) every 3 days in asparagus season. i personally like thinner asparagus way more than thick asparagus. therefor i primarly eat the green ones. but that is a personal preference.

Asparagus makes me pee stink. I love it.

Curiously, In Spain we eat them all year around canned or preserved, is not common to find them fresh on season (Although is not rare either, they are just not everywhere)

we love them in spain as well, but we don't typically buy them raw but as a food preserve

And now imagine eating wild asparagus!! 🤯 Mind blowing. But I doubt many people even in Portugal have ever tried outside Alentejo and not inside of Asparagus Migas

Never would've thought to see my homeland on Insider Business.

For anyone here not from Germany: Almost every region claims that their Asparagus is the best. And yes, Germans are obsessed with ‘Spargel’. (One of my colleagues from the UK once visited our German sites and was given Asparagus for every dinner 😂)

As an American, I had eaten plenty of green asparagus, but didn't even know that white asparagus was a thing until I spent a couple years living in northern Germany during college. I was genuinely confused the first time I saw it, thinking the Germans had somehow given the same name (Spargel) to two completely different vegetables. Since it was more expensive, I didn't even initially buy any white asparagus, since I figured the green stuff was the "real" asparagus anyways. The first time I had it was during the first Spargelzeit I experienced out there, and it was when some local friends prepared it while I was eating dinner at their place. They talked about the great local stand they always bought theirs from every year, and asked which places I had gotten my white asparagus from in that city so far. They looked genuinely horrified when I told them that I hadn't bought any yet or tried it before, since green was what I was used to and it was cheaper anyways. They had no idea before that moment that white asparagus wasn't really a thing in the US. They were then insistent that I eat it immediately right in front of them, so they could see my face. Even after the first bite, I couldn't believe what I had been missing out on all those years. I was extremely grateful to those friends afterwards, and they immediately explained how white asparagus was the same vegetable as green asparagus, and taught me how to spot the good stuff. Even funnier, at the time I was actually living in a town in Schleswig-Holstein where they grew white asparagus and strawberries, and had biked past some of the fields that were renowned for their white asparagus many times. So after discovering what I had been missing, I splurged just once to have a meal at the farm restaurant they had their consisting of white asparagus, hollandaise sauce, potatoes, and prosciutto. That was the one time I had the absolute top-tier stuff, and while it wasn't economically feasible to make that the norm, I did at least develop a habit of buying more affordable white asparagus every Spargelzeit I was in Germany after that. It's been years since I returned to the US, and I don't think I've gotten to have it again since I've been back. I definitely miss it.

I never knew someone could like a vegetable so much.

Never seen somebody love asparagus as much as this man. Never seen somebody love asparagus as much as this man.

I grew up in one of the most famous Asparagus - regions. Most kids learned how to harvest Asparagus before learning how to swim or ride a bike.

I love here in Germany when its asparagus season yummmmmmm

Where I live asparagus just grows everywhere. It's so omnipresent I couldn't imagine that's something so expensive overseas 😂

When I moved to Germany I still can'tget my head around the craze for Spargel

7:43 No way the Narrator got through that in 1 take without collapsing in giggles ;)

I love asparagus but they are quite hard to grow in my country

White asparagus and lovage greens :D

On the west coast in Oregon, U.S. I see them at all my local grocery stores. I had no idea it was considered rare.

I'm a German living in australia for a year and I miss eating spargel so much

I waited to hear how the narrator will pronounce the special asparagus knife 😁 🤣 😂 6:12

Empire, Michigan, USA has an annual asparagus festival. May is usually Asparagus season in Michigan. I’ve seen white and I think purple? But green is the ‘normal’ kind here.

The long and thick white asparagus are the best.

I have clay soil and therefore every year when digging I add sand. I have a huge pile of sand on the site that I cover with a tarpaulin most of the time and at some point I just started putting white asparagus seeds there. They grow absolutely without my help. I have not only clay, but also a lowland - always high humidity (I really have a stream in a pipe a meter from the surface, it partially exits at the other end of the site and it is always wet everywhere.). That's the result - every year and a couple of bags of seeds, I get about a kilogram of the plant. I distribute it all to friends and acquaintances - it is not grown in my country and for many it is the only opportunity to try it. (Although I certainly don't understand all this, I am a very simple person, I like broccoli and cauliflower more. For their sake, I keep all this sand- they don't like my soil suitable for making bricks. :D

9:10 Nothing says professional chef like habitually wiping your nose with your hand.

My husband and I were listening to this Chef talk and how he acts and moves - and both of us looked at each other and said - this guy is an Austrian. He sounds like from Styria or Carinthia. We looked him up. He is from Graz!! :D

erwin, bester mann haha

I love any asparagus

I see this pretty commonly in Colorado usa at the fancier grocery stores

It is a great meal though, it is populair here in The Netherlands. Great with egg and ham and some patatoes. Can olso make soup with it.

I enjoyed a side of white asparagus in Germany years ago. Its effin delicious!!!!❤

wow , Beautiful ❤

i like it

0:17 Brooooo XD That ain't looking right chief XD XD XD

We grow it in Australia in koo wee rup. Have done for 30 years

You also mound the soil when you grow leeks to get more of that white edible part.

i didnt know what it took to turn asparagus white, but i definetly knew how to turn vaporeon white

Now I understand why there are so many seasonal workers from Eastern Europe in Asparagus season.

Interesting. I wonder if its possible to grow it with indoor aeroponic systems. Different color LED can make it grow without triggering the chlorophyll production.

I remember getting some free. I preferred the green one.

I’ve seen these at Wegman’s grocery store, maybe not as thick, the girth wise, but definitely white asparagus

simple way to cook it have a pan with a small layer of water, boil it with disk on for 10 minutes, then remove it and bake another 10 until the ater is gone, and there you go its why people like it, its simple to make

In the Netherlands, we eat this one at the end of spring.

I didn’t even know white asparagus is even a thing till today

Curious as to the nutritional values of white asparagus compared to green asparagus.

In Europe, it is literally the reverse. The white asparagus is very commonly to get by, especially in Germany. The green one however, is considered more of a delicacy, it also cost more.

In Spain they're harvested at night to avoid any type of sunlight

It's funny seeing those blue cases, typical to european fruit/vegatable auctions ending up in new york.

FUNNY! Why is this movie coming out way AFTER closure of the white asparagus season? The info is interesting, but timing imho is funny to say the least! For te record, official closure of the season for white asparagus is "Saint John's Day" or the day of "St Jan" in Dutch, which is on June 24th.

Well I love green asparagus, how does white compare flavor wise? Is it stronger or more mild in flavor?

I'm waiting to look at black asparagus

Green asparagus is already expensive here like it will cost you 2.5 usd for about 6-8 stalks lol. It’s an occasional treat and so good fried with bacon or eaten as barbecued asparagus wrapped in bacon.

My favourite veg even since I was young. My grandfather was a farmer growing asparagus. And I mean the real asparagus, not the green stuff 😅

One thing I would like to ask the farmer is there a way to neither install a roof of solar panel or just on top of the crop in making electricity instead of using mud to block the sun?

Every time I see asparagus. It reminds me of a scene in Austin Powers where he eats them while sneaking in Dr. Evil's underground layer in Gold member.

I just found out that there's white asparagus.

My mother always makes them with sliced shoulder ham and a couple of eggs.

Never knew White Asparagus existed till today

25 bucks per pound? Here in The Netherlands, we get them for like 5 bucks...

Never in my life have i seen white asparagus 😲