The Wild Asparagus Eye

Spring has sprung, friends. You know what that means, Doncha?

Wild asparagus hunting, you say?

Right on! Well done, you are now a Triestino.

"The conditions were just right this year," they say at the water cooler  coffee machine at the office. "Rain rain rain, sun sun sun! Just wait 'til this weekend! We are going to canvas the Carso!!"

There is a secret language and word-of-mouth-only culture surrounding wild asparagus that only the locals speak. It involves things like "recognising the right bush" and "getting there before anyone else" and having "the eye" for wild asparagus.

Monday morning break-time (which is actually the first half hour of work, between 9:00 and 9:30am) usually involves fisherman-type boasts about how "big the bunch" was from the weekend, and new secret spots discovered.

Now, I do not speak this language, and I definitely do not have THE EYE. But. I can tell you that my family went this weekend (I had to work and they decided to have fun without me) with some experts (Little Sweetie's classmates and their parents). They came home with a nice bouquet of wild asparagus (which is thin thin thin, by the way, and can be mixed up with just about any other weed in the Carso if you ask me) and a handful of ticks burrowed sweetly under Sweetie's skin (belly button, butt, shoulder-blade), but no pain no gain when it comes to Asparagus Hunting. These are small inconveniences compared to the delight of a nice frittata with wild asparagus and a spritz bianco at the end of the Asparagus Expedition...

But, can I just say something? My advice to you. The Asparagus is delicious, but the hunting seems like a lot of work. Do like I do: skip the hunting and cultivate your friendships. Asparagus Hunters are wonderful and generous people. If you are nice to them maybe they will share with you. The asparagus, I mean. For the secret locations, good luck!