Around Easter it is always busy around Broersen’s farm in Warmenhuizen. The asparagus harvest is then in full swing. In the greenhouses you will see long rows of trays full of white gold, neatly hidden under a black plastic blanket to give them as much solar heat as possible. Now, at the end of December, those greenhouses look very different.
“The season is now starting again for us. Since the last harvest ended in June, we have actually left the asparagus plants alone. It was time to grow, now it is time to prune. The crop is now 2.5 meters high “Two months ago everything was green here. Now it dies and the power goes back to the plant. Then it produces new asparagus stems,” says Sem Broersen.
Males and females
You can use those asparagus plants for about ten years. By growing the plant after each harvest, everything continues to grow beneath the surface. “We are now in our seventh year. A plant produces more and more asparagus as it grows. But there is a turning point. The power must be distributed. If you get too many asparagus on one plant, they will eventually become too thin. But ours can last a while.”
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