The green stalks poke upward, fingerlike, from their mounds, their purple tips vivid in the early morning light. Bent over farmworkers move from row to row, their long-handled knives cutting each asparagus spear one by one.
If you bought your bundle of spears, bound with a purple rubber band, at a supermarket or Costco — or you live in Japan or Switzerland — chances are your asparagus began here, 10 inches below the surface of the earth. Furrowed farms across the Sacramento River Delta supply this quintessential spring vegetable, which can grow an astounding five inches overnight, to the world.
Some of the farms are large family holdings, like Prima Bella, which has been owned by the Bacchetti family since 1946. Others are smaller organic farms and CSAs, Community Supported Agriculture enterprises, which deliver boxes of fresh asparagus to subscribers and restaurants such as Berkeley's Gather and Gabriella's in Santa Cruz each week.
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