# Wild Asparagus "Hunting"



## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

Anyone else here wonder how one can go looking for Asparagus along fence rows and roadsides and miss as much as I do? Seems easy... it doesn't move, you know where to look and it's only growing at a certain time of year. 

How is it that I can look in the same spot and come back three days later to stalks two feet tall? I know it's not just me, as I have picked after many other hunters on the same roadsides to find pounds they missed.


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

In the fall when the aspargus is tall with ferns, I'm tempted to take a can of orange spray paint and "mark" the fence ---- so it will be easier to find in the spring.

But because it's "not my fence" I never do it ----- would you?


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## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

I would never do that either, and not only because it's not my fence. Everyone else here (it seems like) hunts asparagus too. I like to hunt where the poison ivy is tall and no one else will venture near. If I'd mark it, soon everyone else would be there too. 

I'm up to 65 lbs in the last month and counting.


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## Dale Alan (Sep 26, 2012)

I miss it too, just part of the game I guess. I find my eyes just don't pick it up as well anymore.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

As soon as I have it from my asparagus bed I start looking for the tell tale dead stalks from last year. then do a closer inspection. Those stalks some times will go from just peeking thru the ground to a two foot tall stalk in a day and night. I see that happen in the cultvated bed I have.

If you want to mark the spots you have found it before and not let the whole world know USE your GPS to mark the spot as a way point on a asparagus track.


 Al


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

I've put asparagus and mushrooms in the same catagory - both will grow to an uneatable state within hours given the right weather.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I've never seen (or didn't recognize) "wild" asparagus. Does it look like tame?


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## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

To answer motg's question... I call it "wild" because it was not planted in a cultivated yard or place. Here it grows along mostly fence rows. Not too old or not too weedy fences, but in areas near old homes. 

I assume that years ago the homes had asparagus beds under cultivation and the birds ate seeds and dispersed them along the fences they sat on. These spears look like your cultivated varieties. Here's a photo from a year or two ago to show you.


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

froebeli said:


> To answer motg's question... I call it "wild" because it was not planted in a cultivated yard or place. Here it grows along mostly fence rows. Not too old or not too weedy fences, but in areas near old homes.
> 
> I assume that years ago the homes had asparagus beds under cultivation and the birds ate seeds and dispersed them along the fences they sat on. These spears look like your cultivated varieties. Here's a photo from a year or two ago to show you.


My grampa gave me his journal on the locations of wild plants. He even planted some of them in secluded areas, mainly ginseng and golden seal. I suspect some of the asperagus was also.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

my first thought was gps then i thought , there are plenty of land marks around , and a few notes could have you on it in no time , counting fence posts from the corner or how many yards from the big oak , but if it is anywhere close to poison ivy you can keep it , had it to many times , i never want it again 

I am probably over cautious on land rights I would probably need to know the owner or know it was state / federal land 
if is in a mans fence line then it is his 

i was watching a thing on asparagus a while back and they interviewed a asparagus farm owner , they have long mounds of it in the field , and on a hot day they can pick it and be ready to pick it again by the time they finished picking the row that was 3-400 feet long so about every hour during the heat of the day


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## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

Thanks all for the replies. I especially liked the thought about intentional plantings. 

To clarify, I hunt only on roadside fences that are considered right of way and not private property, although I know most of the land owners also. 

My question/comment was not so much aimed at missing specific locations, but in missing the harvest of plants in known areas. For example, I have a fence row/roadside I pick that is 1/4 or more miles long with a width of 30 to 40 feet. The asparagus is spread over that area randomly. The raspberries and grasses and weeds right now are about 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall. One can't realistically find all of it... It's just frustrating to miss!

I have picked over 30 lbs here in the last two weeks and have probably missed 5 or more lbs as well.


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Froebeli, those intentional wild plantings were a very common thing where I grew up. You didn't mess with another persons plantings. Some of my grampa and grammas were in state parks and wildlife refuges. And of course neighboring farms. Back then no one cared about trespass.


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