Asparagus Gratin

My memory of asparagus starts in England, when at the age of eight I was given co-management of our vegetable garden and its asparagus bed. I had my own vegetable project in Australia before that, but no asparagus. When I first saw the English bed, it was full of gloriously luxuriant mature asparagus ferns, and I was very disappointed when I was told they were no good to eat. But a year (and many wheelbarrows of muck from our stables) later, we were inundated with those beautiful edible spe