Photo of
May 8, 2012
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We’ll be seeing lots of this soon, hopefully

By this point of the year, asparagus lovers would normally expect to be knee-deep in the crunchy delicacy but a triple whammy of cold weather, drought and then, ironically, flooding has disrupted the short British asparagus season.

Traditionally, the English asparagus season starts on the 1st of May although, in reality, growers in the south of England may start cutting a couple of weeks earlier.

An unexpected warm spell at the end of March meant that some producers had started harvesting at the very beginning of April but the recent weather patterns halted that in its tracks.

Even the British Asparagus Festival, which was due to take place last weekend, had to be cancelled after flooding left the Vale of Evesham venue under several inches of water.

However, all is not lost. According to the British Asparagus trade association, a significant proportion of asparagus farmers hope to start cutting this weekend so fingers crossed.

Are Scottish asparagus growers experiencing the same difficulties? Possibly not.

Your blogger visited the Whitehouse restaurant at Lochaline on Ardnamurchan this weekend. A runner-up in the Rural Restaurant of the Year category at the Scottish Restaurant Awards, they were serving asparagus as is the Scottish Cafe and Restaurant underneath the National Galleries of Scotland on The Mound in Edinburgh.

Winners of the Best Service prize at the awards, the kitchen is making the most of the new asparagus from Sandy Pattullo’s Eassie farm near Glamis and serving it with a seasonal wild salad and a coddled duck egg from Linda Dick’s farm.