White asparagus comes to Israel

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a side project, and it’s finally been published. The whole thing started after I noticed a few lonely bunches of white asparagus at the Carmel market, as if the sellers were testing the waters to see if anyone would buy. This was the first time I’d seen it fresh since we were in Italy last year. After encountering it again (and finally purchasing) at the Tel Aviv port farmer’s market, my curiosity was piqued: Until now, white asparagus was virtually impossible to find in Israel.

It turns out that’s going to change. As I found out (and as my article explains), the Agriculture Ministry is hoping to launch a program to teach farmers to grow white asparagus. This means that you can expect to see more of it in the comping years, and that you’ll be able to enjoy it for less than the cost of a trip to Europe. Exciting stuff.

So here you go: The PDF version and the JPEG of the newspaper page, and the online version (sadly, without the photos).

Asparagus recipes to follow in the coming days.