For her life as an asparagus outsider, Christine Rehm needs one thing above all: patience. While harvest workers are already working on most of the asparagus farms in the Schrobenhausen region, the fields of the Rehm family north of Schrobenhausen are still untouched. “As a rule, we start digging our asparagus around April 20th,” says Christine Rehm a few days before Easter, and she doesn’t seem at all restless. “Right now it’s far too cold for asparagus. But when it gets milder after the holidays, nature can explode in no time.” The stalks would then shoot up several inches a day and would soon be ready for harvest.
The 61-year-old isn’t bothered by the fact that masses of asparagus had already been sold over the counters in supermarkets and street stalls by then. “I don’t see it as competition,” she says, which sounds quite self-confident. She and her husband Josef let the race for the earliest harvest pass them by. “We have very loyal and aware customers.” Even Munich’s star chef Tohru Nakamura, who just asked when the asparagus would be ready, has to be patient, says Rehm. But nothing helps.
Because the asparagus outsiders from the village of Linden have something to offer that is very rare in Bavaria – and for which, in their opinion, it is worth waiting: “plastic-free asparagus”.
Since the 1990s, it has been standard in the industry to cover fields by the hectare with arable film so that the white asparagus can grow faster even in cooler temperatures and can be harvested earlier. The season has continuously shifted forward, which is boosting consumption and thus business. Environmental organizations such as the BUND are critical of the plastic tarpaulinsbecause insects and birds would find it difficult to find food on the sealed surfaces and plastic could accumulate in the soil and get into the groundwater.
But the foils are an integral part of agriculture, they are also used in the cultivation of salads, strawberries and pumpkins. They help to store heat and moisture in the soil, protect against pests and extreme weather and significantly increase yields. “For the farms, a reliable harvest would not be possible without foils,” says Claudia Westner, chairwoman of the Southern Bavarian Asparagus Producers Association.
The industry is suffering from increased production and wage costs, cheap imports from abroad make life difficult for suppliers. The President of the German Farmers’ Union, Joachim Rukwied, has warned that asparagus cultivation could “disappear” from Germany.
The Rehms in Linden also experimented with arable film many years ago and covered four of their 20 fields. “The result was amazing,” recalls Christine Rehm. “There were more asparagus in the four fields than in the other 16 combined.” But the enthusiasm only lasted until the rehearsal dinner: the foil asparagus tasted “watery and bland”, only the head had the typical taste. “Aroma takes time to develop,” believes the 61-year-old. As a member of the “Slow Food” initiative, her company has not used the aid to this day. Also because she thinks that the many plastic lanes spoil the landscape.
If you ask experts, no one really wants to confirm the theory of insipid foil asparagus. Carmen Feller has been researching the cultivation of asparagus at the Leibniz Institute for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops in Brandenburg for years and says that the tarpaulin can even have a positive effect. “The faster the asparagus grows, the more tender the consistency,” she says, emphasizing that the soil temperature is crucial for growth. And here the foil is clearly ahead in comparison to the changeable nature. Unlike tomatoes, which get little sun in the greenhouse and therefore often taste pale and watery, asparagus doesn’t need sunlight either, says Feller. “On the contrary: In Germany, people want the asparagus to be as white as possible. If too much sun falls on the white asparagus, the head quickly turns purple.”
For the asparagus individualist Christine Rehm, however, this is not a flaw. “It tastes even better with a blue head,” she says. Purple asparagus is particularly popular in high-end gastronomy. But she also says that the film itself is only one aspect. The variety is also important for the taste. The “Gijnlim” variety, developed in the Netherlands, has now become the standard when it comes to film cultivation. It is particularly productive and can be harvested early. Rehm considers them to be an overbred mass product and prefers to use old German varieties. “Our asparagus is something for lovers,” she says.