First, let me make one thing clear: I will not post anything about white asparagus that is cultivated, domesticated and fat as human finger. I know that the most of you used to that species of asparagus, because it can be cultivated in the most of the world, but this GREEN asparagus grows only in eastern parts of Mediterranean coast. And these are originals, the taste and the smell of green, thin asparagus is much more intense than the taste and the smell of white one. So, this is my first post about them. Believe me, you can expect much more about wild asparagus from me in next days. The post about picking them from the nature waits the rain to stop falling. And the post about cooking them waits me to go out after the rain and pick some asparagus.

Wild asparagus or Asparagus acutifolius is an evergreen plant in Mediterranean region.

Acutifolius means "thorny leaves" on Latin.

So, when you see this plant, first you see the bush of needles. And it doesn't look friendly! It can be about 1 meter high, but the plant itself is longer. Just prefers to crawl on the ground. In the summer it starts to flower and then you can see some berries on them. But we don't to eat those berries. We don't want to eat the bush, neither!

But this little spear that just came out from the soil looks much more interesting!

These shoots start to come out from the ground in the early spring.

Then, they grow fast. And, if you want to eat it, you have to pick it quickly, because in ten days it will become a wooden stem for the new bush and it is not so eatable anymore. They don't like a lot of the sunlight, so they prefer the shade of pines. And here in Dalmatia, you can find them on rocky, bushy terrain. It is not protected by law but there are some restrictions for the pickers. But that's only if municipal policeman catches you. And he would charge you about 0.50 HRK per an asparagus and that is around 0.8$, let's just say a little bit less than 1 Steem.

Down on the photo you can see the macro shot of the example that I brought home.

To find more of these you must enter deeper into bushes.

Where my dog and I go to walk, there is no any paths at all. We kinda make our own path each day. Now, after the rain, everything around me looks like this:

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And a bush looks like this:

You must try to move all grass and the bush because asparagus can be invisible in the environment.

It's color varies from green to brown and they can hide into some other spiky or thorny bush nearby. Your eye can easily miss it. I found these few new spears today in half of hour without rain. It means that they just broke through the ground. They grow very fast and I think that tomorrow this little shoot will be very nice asparagus (a macro shot):

It was about 4 centimeters high in the moment when I was taking this photo. I can expect that tomorrow it will be at least 15 centimeters high. I found a larger one, possible from yesterday:

Only 15 of these can make very tasty soup.

You wouldn't believe how big is concentration of taste in this thin plant. You can put just few of them into any soup with any other vegetables, or even meat, but asparagus will totally overtake the whole taste of the meal. Only the head of the spear and about 10 centimeters down are eatable. They can be prepared on many different ways and many delicious meals can be done, but there is no wild asparagus on the legal market. You can buy them from the old lady who stands by the road with bundle of a kilo of asparagus, and they are pretty expensive. Even twice expensive than municipal policeman.

Here's another one:

The asparagus is rich with minerals and vitamins. It can help to renew the organism poisoned with alcohol. So, it can help you to get sober. It is very good for detoxification. Asparagus is diuretic as you can smell it on your toilet. It is rich with folic acid so it is good for pregnant ladies. And it is very healthy for your skin, it can give it special shine.

I hope that I will find a lot of them in next few days so this is not end with my posting about asparagus. So, in next few days, I will show you how to find a lot of them and how to cook them on few ways.

For the end of this post, I give you a macro shot of a stem on the bush of wild asparagus: