I was making a special meal for my mom on Sunday and went out to look for asparagus. I went to three stores looking for local asparagus and came up short - disappointingly everything I found was of the mushy topped, limp stalked, imported variety, and so I resorted to frozen peas. Yesterday I received a big bag of groceries from Metro grocery store showcasing their summer grocery items. As I dug through I immediately stopped at the bunch of asparagus to read the label and low and behold, it was a product of Canada!  I must have been slightly premature in my hunt because it looks like asparagus has arrived. I love to steam big batches of asparagus when they are in season and keep it in the fridge. I snack on them straight up as spears, have them ready to go as a side dish or quite often cut up into my salad for lunch at the office with a few anchovies and grape tomatoes, maybe a boiled egg or a few new potatoes if I have them cooked, a little olive oil and squeeze of lemon - delicious! If I've just picked them up fresh from the grocery store for dinner, grilling or roasting is the way to go. Again I always make extra because I love them cold or cut up in a quick frittata. My father loves to forage for wild asparagus and gets the really thin ones that are perfect to toss with linguine and pecorino cheese for a spring time pasta. My mom pickles these thin wiry asparagus every year, packing them into tiny jar to savour all year round. Is your local asparagus up yet? Here's more information on delicious asparagus: Cooking Cleaning and Storing How to Grill Asparagus How to Roast Asparagus How to Pickle Asparagus (Not my mothers recipe, but still good!) Asparagus Frittata

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