# Gentle reminder for asparagus hunters



## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

It's that season again and I wanted to gently remind some of the more resourceful types on here to mind their hunting manners. I know asparagus hunting can be fun and I know 95% of the folks on here are polite. But...even some well intentioned people may not be aware of certain road ditch etiquette.

(okay maybe I am venting a little too)

Oftentimes, like on our family farm, roads are easments through private property. These easements are for transportation purposes. The ditches on the sides of the roads as well as the roads (technically) are private property. 

The asparagus that runs up the ditch next to our pasture fences was planted and picked by family for over 50 years. Each year Grandma leaves just enough behind to reseed so she can come back year after year.

Every year we have people show up to pick our asparagus because they assume it is wild and free for the taking. It isn't....... road dicthes just make the ideal place to keep our asparagus. It's moist and out of the way of combines and hay mowing equipment.

Please, if you are asparagus hunting and there is a house within eyeshot go ask the owners before picking the asparagus. If the person doesn't care good for you! Otherwise you may just be trespassing and stealing from someones garden.

This post may go without saying but just in case, for people who are small land holders, the easement and property issue may be unfamiliar. Ditches in farm country do belong to the farmer.

Thanks


----------



## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

We're the same way. Last year I had to chase away people. A lady acted as if she had no idea she was stealing. She made the comment along the line that she'd notice if I let it go to waste. Well, if I do, it's my prerogative. As soon as the rain stops, I'm going to dig up a bunch and put it where she cannot see it. 

The woman acted as if she was taking the asparagus for personal use. Well, there is no way any family could use all the asparagus on our property. She was stealing asparagus all the way down our road. She had to be selling it. She works at the post office. If I so desired I could have caused some problems with her employer.

Remember also, that it's wrong to trespass and steal because of your desire for my asparagus and my mushrooms. Thanks for the reminder. We need to get some No Trespassing signs.


----------



## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

I keep wondering where my stupid LGD is. He'll shred a coyote and then act stupid when people come around. *sigh*


----------



## nodak3 (Feb 5, 2003)

And a gentle reminder for landowners.

The OP is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT about easement roads.

However, the flip side is having encountered irate landowners who's property borders state and federal highways. In some parts of the country it is perfectly dandy to harvest there AS LONG AS you remain OUTSIDE the landowner's fence.

When we lived near the rez, asparagus and alfalfa were commonly gleaned from state and federal highways by the Navajo's. It was perfectly legal, but there were always some folks offended by it.


----------



## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

nodak3 said:


> When we lived near the rez, asparagus and alfalfa were commonly gleaned from state and federal highways by the Navajo's. It was perfectly legal, but there were always some folks offended by it.



I totally get what you're saying...

I was just a bit raw feeling since someone took a gander at our property earlier today. Just so happens to be a ditch that runs from my front lawn (not pasture mind you) up to a cemetary at the top of our hill (old family cemetery from folks who had farm before our family). The cemetery belongs to the guy on the next farm and his Dad's FRESH mounded grave is obviously there. The person who stopped had a ton of nerve and had I not been with napping babies inside would have run him off myself.

Been a long week of kids doing donuts in crop acres and now a nasty rude asparagus hunter...I'm cranky.

BTW I would never presume the right to gripe at someone from a reservation gleaning roadways. Technically I'm on their ground. : )


----------



## therunbunch (Oct 5, 2009)

:teehee:Asparagus hunting???

I have never heard of that before! :shocked:


----------



## BethW (May 3, 2007)

therunbunch said:


> :teehee:Asparagus hunting??? I have never heard of that before! :shocked:


I haven't either. Learn something new every day


----------



## solidwoods (Dec 23, 2005)

I already bush hogged the area. Its wild asparagus.
I'd like to do the cover the new shoots with dirt and make them grow through.
I saw it done in Germany and it produces fat very tender shoots (also white but that may have been a certain type)


----------



## wwubben (Oct 13, 2004)

I've had people come right into my yard and take my asparagus.One year road workers stripped one of my apple trees.People can be nuts.


----------



## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Maybe a friendly sign would be in order.

Not everyone has grown up in the country and is aware that ditches may be someones property and not public land. That may solve most of your problem and educate those who don't know better at the same time.


----------



## NewGround (Dec 19, 2010)

therunbunch said:


> :teehee:Asparagus hunting???
> 
> I have never heard of that before! :shocked:


It requires a special bore shotgun I've heard...


----------



## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

therunbunch said:


> :teehee:Asparagus hunting???
> 
> I have never heard of that before! :shocked:





NewGround said:


> It requires a special bore shotgun I've heard...


A long time ago farmers were paid to grow asparagus by big canning companies. A lot of the asparagus went wild. Along the culvert between our road and our fence grows the best tasting asparagus you've ever tasted. It's not the thin stuff you get at the grocery. It's at least as big as my thumb and tender as all get out. It's so sweet that it tastes wonderful raw. 

New, I'd like more information about asparagus hunting ammo.


----------



## Suzyq2u (May 17, 2010)

mmmm German spargel (white asparagus)......man I miss that...sometimes you can find it jarred at aldi's but it's not the same. Grilled, topping a steak smothered in hollandaise sauce..dang now I'm hungry.... 

Haven't gone hunting stateside for it though -- green or white (I'm pretty sure it's more common as an EU delicacy for the white) ....gonna have to keep my peepers open...not on other people's property of course


----------



## Jenn (Nov 9, 2004)

Hey everyone- white spargel (asparagus) is just blanched buy hilling hte dirt up on top of the spears I think as they grow up. Could also put a solid cover on it but beware overheating. Woudl do it here for DH- who prefers the white stuff of his birth place- but my dirt is composted manure and yard dirt (with dogs cats 'dillos and who knows what else) not guaranteed free of poop germs so I actually only harvest above the dirt line. (like it to airbathe at least a few hours before we rinse and eat).


----------



## vicki in NW OH (May 10, 2002)

I agree with posting a sign. 

I like purple asparagus the best.


----------



## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

There are lots of patches of asparagus along the farm roads here, especially along the irrigation canals. We sure wouldn't pick it though as the farmers use aerial spraying (as well as spraying with tractors) of chemicals on the adjoining fields.


----------



## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

If it isn't locked up nailed down and guarded with a shot gun they will take it. Just done a friend's estate auction Sat. they stole trash cans and lids off of some that were full, and the five gallon buckets that I had covered the water hydrants with so they were easier to see.


----------



## house06 (Jan 4, 2007)

I havent seen spargel in the stores in quite awhile. Maybe it didnt catch on it at least here anyway.

Two years ago people were picking up walnuts from trees on our property that border the road that runs by the house I went down and asked what they were doing and the response was that they didnt think the trees belonged to anyone. Even though they were in our yard by mowed grass. I really didnt mind but just wanted someone to ask, it was so obviously in our yard. The next year the electric company cut down the trees while putting in new lines ( and took the wood too) Anyway, would have been okay with the couple picking up the walnuts on our property and the other nut trees that we had , but havent seen them since. AND that is a very very hard job....


----------



## Jan Doling (May 21, 2004)

Put up a sign:

"This private garden was planted by our ancestor 5 decades ago and has been maintained by subsequent generations since"


----------



## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

I wish there were some wild asparagus anywhere near here... until mine grows, i'm stuck buying at 1.99 a lb when it goes on sale.


----------



## Two Cents Worth (Dec 8, 2002)

So, is everyone logging and entering the good spots on geocaching sites? Logging being done by GPS devices for future quick reference?


----------



## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

house06 said:


> I havent seen spargel in the stores in quite awhile. Maybe it didnt catch on it at least here anyway.


I bought jarred white asparagus a couple of weeks ago at Ollie's Bargain Outlet. I don't know if you have one of those stores near you or not, but they are a chain.


----------



## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

there are people down the road that have it in their field and ditches and I see it but would never pick it without permission..that is stealing..ours is in our back garden..out of site.

I suggest that you put a no trespassing sign by the asparagus, and then write on it with a permanent marker, please don't steal my asparagus, we need it for food..theives if caught will be prosecuted


----------



## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

oh and my sister had raspberries and grapes on her alley side of their property and people would drive up, park their cars, pick them clean and drive off..they should have gone to jail for stealing people's food..


----------



## luvrulz (Feb 3, 2005)

If anyone came by and wanted to pick asparagus (I have 4 acres and that's an awful lot of bending over....) I'd tell them to come on. Only thing would be, they'd have to leave me the asparagus and I would pay them money to pick for me! LOLOL I pay 50 cents per pound - any takers???? Please, just say the word....!


----------



## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

vicki in NW OH said:


> I agree with posting a sign.
> 
> I like purple asparagus the best.



We are eating a little of the asparagus we planted last year. The purple variety is delicious and so pretty!


----------



## Kwings (Dec 21, 2010)

painterswife said:


> Maybe a friendly sign would be in order.
> 
> Not everyone has grown up in the country and is aware that ditches may be someones property and not public land. That may solve most of your problem and educate those who don't know better at the same time.


I think a friendly sign would be a great idea. I know personally i live in a small town but i didn't know that ditches beside the roads belonged to the land owners and not the state. I don't asparagus hunt or anything i just never new it until this thread. 

I think living in town people just assume if its by the road it belongs to the state or whoever. I know I've always been told that the grassy space between the roads and the sidewalks doesn't belong to the home owners but it belongs to the state/county. That true here at least so if i was driving down some country road i wouldn't know (before reading this post) that taking something from a ditch or side of the road would be stealing. 

Maybe they just don't know any better, a friendly sign might make them stop, if it doesn't maybe a not so friendly sign for the next time.


----------



## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

Purple? 

I will tell you that wild asparagus tastes like no other. Grocery store and nursery asparagus just don't compare.


----------



## Loriann1971 (Sep 1, 2005)

I had people pick the fruit off trees in my front yard. This has occured at two different places that I have lived and both were in subdivisions, so it was pretty obvious the trees belonged to the house.


----------



## silverbackMP (Dec 4, 2005)

Kwings said:


> I think a friendly sign would be a great idea. I know personally i live in a small town but i didn't know that ditches beside the roads belonged to the land owners and not the state. I don't asparagus hunt or anything i just never new it until this thread.


The OP is talking about a private road on an easement. On public roads the ditches generally belong to the state or county (probably state dependant about this). Although some farmers seem to feel the need to farm out to the ditch (but that is a topic for another thread).


----------

