00:00 (alarm ringing)
00:03 The first thing you notice about this asparagus
00:05 is its color.
00:07 But that's only the beginning.
00:10 White asparagus has a much thicker stalk
00:14 than the common green variety.
00:17 And...
00:18 - The white ones, they're a little bit sweeter.
00:20 Sweeter and juicier.
00:26 - Aficionados refer to this vegetable as white gold.
00:30 And they're willing to pay three times more for it
00:33 than green asparagus because of its distinct flavor.
00:37 - I have clients calling me starting in January,
00:41 when is the asparagus coming?
00:42 - But since white asparagus and green asparagus
00:45 are the exact same plant,
00:47 growing the perfect colorless stalk
00:50 to fetch the highest price requires special preparation,
00:54 specialized tools, and a race against the sun.
00:58 So what exactly does it take to turn asparagus white?
01:01 And why is it so expensive?
01:03 - I'm the Spargel King.
01:06 That's all I need.
01:10 There's nothing else I need for lunch or dinner.
01:15 - Erwin Schröttner is the head chef at Café Katia
01:17 in New York City, one of the few places outside Europe
01:21 that serves Spargel, or white asparagus.
01:25 The restaurant offers a special menu every spring.
01:28 - Oh, look at this.
01:30 Those are the asparagus what I'm looking forward.
01:33 They're as thick as my hand.
01:35 Even though we are at the end of the season this year,
01:39 the asparagus is still amazing.
01:43 Do you hear that crack?
01:44 It's just gorgeous.
01:46 - Since white asparagus predominantly grows
01:48 in Central and Western European countries
01:50 like Germany, Austria, and France,
01:53 Erwin must import all the white asparagus
01:55 he serves in his restaurant.
01:58 And it's not cheap.
01:59 Very early in the spring,
02:01 a case can cost as much as $25 per pound,
02:04 according to Erwin.
02:06 - I can't do it.
02:07 I can't touch it at that price.
02:09 I do have to wait until it comes down a little bit, too.
02:13 Otherwise, I have to charge $100 for a dish.
02:17 - Because of the high import price,
02:19 he charges anywhere from $24 for a small sampler portion
02:23 to $46 for a main asparagus dish with a side of roast duck.
02:28 He says he goes through anywhere
02:30 from 120 to 180 white asparagus stalks per day.
02:35 By mid-June, he's already down to his very last case.
02:40 - And here you can see
02:45 a case of beautiful, beautiful, large asparagus.
02:50 I just love when I see this.
02:54 So far this year, this was 11 pounds in a case.
02:58 I have done 180 cases.
03:01 - The reason chefs like Erwin
03:05 are willing to pay such high prices for white asparagus
03:08 goes back to the laborious and time-intensive process
03:11 it takes to grow it on specialized farms
03:13 like this one in Beelitz, Germany.
03:15 It's asparagus season.
03:18 For just three months a year,
03:20 the delicacy draws crowds from all over the country
03:23 for food and festivities.
03:25 White asparagus thrives in loose, sandy soil
03:29 like the type found around Beelitz.
03:31 - Because it grows quickly and tastes slightly sweet,
03:35 which is what we have here in Beelitz,
03:36 that's why Beelitz asparagus is so popular.
03:39 You can grow asparagus on other soils.
03:42 The problem is that if you grow it on clay or clay soil,
03:46 the asparagus can grow slower,
03:49 can become bitter, develop more bitter substance.
03:52 - Jürgen Jacobs and his brother, Josef,
03:54 harvest about 1.5 million kilograms of asparagus per year
03:58 on their 618 acres of farmland.
04:01 Although they do grow green asparagus,
04:03 over 90% of their crop is the more valuable white variety.
04:07 Since green asparagus and white asparagus
04:10 are actually the same plant,
04:11 the color it will become depends entirely
04:14 on how it's raised.
04:15 Once an asparagus stalk pops out of the ground,
04:17 it's exposed to the sun and produces chlorophyll.
04:20 The tip will initially turn slightly purple
04:23 and then green with more exposure.
04:25 The trick to keeping it white is letting the plant grow
04:28 as large as possible underground.
04:30 Then, once it emerges from the earth,
04:33 farmers must harvest it before it has a chance to turn green.
04:36 To accomplish this, they build mounds of dirt
04:39 around the asparagus and then cover the rows of crops
04:42 in these foil tarps.
04:43 The foil reflects the sunlight away from the plant
04:47 and helps prevent the coloration of the stalks.
04:50 It also helps maintain the temperature
04:51 of the plants underground,
04:53 which means that Jürgen's farm
04:54 can control the asparagus yield
04:56 based on current demand and weather.
04:58 We can use this foil system,
05:01 a management system, to control the asparagus harvest
05:06 and say we want more asparagus,
05:08 we turn the black side outwards,
05:10 we want less asparagus,
05:12 we turn the white side outwards
05:14 and can thus regulate the market a bit
05:19 so that we don't have an offer if there is no demand
05:22 or no offer if the demand is full.
05:26 And demand soars in the spring.
05:29 The official asparagus season starts in mid-April
05:31 and ends around June 24th,
05:33 the feast day of St. John the Baptist.
05:35 And the strict June cut-off date
05:37 is crucial to the future of the crop.
05:39 Each asparagus stem produces about 15 shoots
05:55 over the course of three months.
05:57 Since asparagus is a perennial crop,
06:00 the same plant will continue to produce stalks
06:03 for eight to ten years.
06:05 Once the white asparagus heads
06:07 appear through the mound,
06:08 each stalk is removed carefully,
06:10 one at a time, using a special asparagus knife
06:13 called a Spargelsticher.
06:15 The trick is to put two fingers into the soil
06:18 to find the stalk, insert the knife
06:20 and pluck it at just the right spot
06:22 so you don't destroy the crown or roots.
06:24 While much of the harvesting is done by hand,
06:26 Jürgen says the farm has automated
06:28 some of the processes over time
06:30 to increase production.
06:31 Today, instead of the asparagus basket,
06:51 there are harvesting aids.
06:53 The harvesting aids drive battery-powered
06:55 over-the-field.
06:57 The harvested asparagus is immediately brought inside
07:15 for cleaning and sorting.
07:17 And speed is crucial,
07:19 since white asparagus will begin to spoil
07:21 only about 10 days after harvesting.
07:24 Workers sort the asparagus by quality.
07:41 The most expensive Spargel is pure white,
07:45 perfectly straight and thick.
07:48 But some might have purple colour to them,
07:50 a thinner stalk or a curved shape,
07:53 which can decrease the price by several euros.
07:56 Any asparagus that doesn't make the cut
07:59 will return to the farm for use as compost.
08:01 The Spargel that passes the quality checks
08:03 can be sold locally for anywhere
08:05 from 6 to 10 euros per kilogram,
08:07 depending on the year.
08:09 It's also shipped abroad,
08:11 where export prices can exceed that range
08:13 due to the Spargel's short shelf life
08:15 and the speed required in shipping.
08:17 That's how it ends up in restaurant kitchens
08:20 around the world, like Elvin's.
08:22 Unlike green asparagus,
08:26 white asparagus must be peeled before it can be eaten,
08:29 since the long time spent underground
08:31 causes it to develop a tough, thick outer layer.
08:34 A case like this, it will take me 6 to 7 minutes.
08:38 There are 42 to 48 asparagus in there,
08:41 depends on size.
08:42 And then you just,
08:43 tack, tack, tack, tack, tack.
08:45 It just goes,
08:47 and the skin is flying off.
08:50 White asparagus is also typically boiled in its own stalk,
08:53 made from these peeled skins.
08:56 Two lemons is perfect for my pot here.
08:59 And I just put this into the water.
09:04 And we have some salt.
09:09 That's all we need here to get the water going.
09:13 The ends of stalks are also snapped off.
09:16 Beautiful.
09:17 Ah, that was a good one.
09:21 And then trimmed to a uniform length
09:23 before being placed in the stalk
09:25 and boiled for about 10 minutes.
09:27 And let them boil.
09:32 Now they're ready for plating.
09:35 Fine dining restaurants in Europe,
09:37 when I did this,
09:39 we had very crisp still.
09:42 If you do this at home,
09:45 and you eat it right away,
09:48 you might want to go another two minutes.
09:50 The most traditional dish,
09:58 and the most popular one at Cafe Katia,
10:00 is boiled asparagus smothered in Hollandaise sauce
10:04 and served with a side of potatoes.
10:06 Some parsley potatoes.
10:14 (upbeat music)
10:17 That's all I need.
10:20 There's nothing else I need for lunch or dinner.
10:24 I absolutely don't miss any proteins on this one.
10:29 There's definitely proteins in the egg,
10:32 in the Hollandaise, that's enough.
10:34 He also serves a version covered in lemon vinaigrette
10:37 with prosciutto and croutons.
10:40 While demand for white asparagus is as strong as ever,
10:43 both in Europe and at restaurants abroad like Cafe Katia,
10:47 the industry hasn't been immune
10:49 to recent international crises.
10:51 During the COVID-19 pandemic,
10:53 seasonal workers at asparagus farms
10:55 weren't allowed to cross the border into Germany,
10:58 inciting fear of a spargel shortage.
11:00 The German government was forced to pass an emergency bill
11:04 allowing them into the country.
11:05 And with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022,
11:09 rising utility costs and inflation
11:11 led to European citizens spending less on items
11:14 like luxury vegetables.
11:16 People are buying asparagus again.
11:19 They say, "Okay, this whole discussion about cost increases
11:24 seems to have been forgotten.
11:28 Inflation is going down again.
11:30 Energy prices have dropped.
11:32 The cost-benefit ratio seems to be normalising.
11:36 And people are willing to spend money again.
11:39 That's very good for us in the asparagus and strawberries sector.
11:43 People are buying again, and we're very happy about that."
11:46 And at Cafe Katia, as the season draws to a close,
11:49 Erwin is already thinking about next year.
11:52 For me, cooking and preparing and peeling the asparagus,
11:57 actually I'm looking forward to it every year.
11:59 And it's a little bit of meditation.
12:01 The skin is flying off.
12:07 We fly them in from Europe.
12:10 They are not shipped because their shelf life is not that long.
12:15 The asparagus, I'm really taking pride of it
12:18 because my asparagus menu, so far,
12:21 I have not seen anywhere in the United States
12:24 who has such an extensive menu as we do.
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