Did you know that asparagus is one of the crops that we harvest here on Texel every year? You’ll find it in the farm shop and at various restaurants from mid-April onwards. Texel asparagus spears are also known as Texel’s white gold.

White gold

Delicious, super-fresh asparagus from a Wadden island! Bert and Meina Keijser from the 'Keijser aardappelen & asperges' farm grow Texel asparagus in Ongeren, an area known for its fertile soil. The asparagus spears are picked early in the morning, before the sun rises - to stop them changing from white to green. Asparagus picking is quite a fine art, as the spears have to be cut in the ground, but without breaking them. The asparagus crop is grown in virgin soil, which means that it is used for just one asparagus season. Asparagus is harvested on a daily basis between mid-April and the end of June.

Tours

Tours are organised at the asparagus farm too. So, visitors can see the asparagus beds for themselves and find out more about asparagus and how it is grown.

Recipe

As you might expect, you’ll eat asparagus with Texel lamb ham here on the island! Find the recipe here. Deliciously thin-cut lamb ham is available from the butcher’s (Slagerij Goënga, for example), while Texel sheep cheese can be sourced from the De Waddel sheep farm or the Wezenspyk cheese farm. This article was made possible by Annette van Ruitenburg, author of the De Smaak van Texel cookbook.

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