Was it ever asparagus time. Andrew and Geoff found that there was so much asparagus in their garden that they had to give it away, which, since it was the green colour which the French despise and the British prefer, made them extremely popular even with people who startled visibly upon meeting a gay couple. In the markets, the stalls were suddenly heaped with bunches of white asparagus, while the green was often just sold by weight from a great heap of stems. It was surprising to see the despised green asparagus on sale at all – maybe people were only growing it because they’d always grown it, ever since the days of Eleanor of Aquitaine. To the taste of the rest of Europe, the green asparagus which the English like has an overpowering flavour, makes your breath smell and has a nasty diuretic effect. The white asparagus, which the English consider insipid, is achieved by blanching the stems, rendering them succulent and delicate. It’s possible that class also creeps into the question because only the smallholders in the markets were selling green asparagus, while it was almost impossible to find in smart greengrocers or in the supermarkets.
