It's Asparagus Season at D.A. Smiarowski Farms!
At the co-op, we take immense pride in our commitment to purchasing foods and products that support local farms and business owners. As such, our dedication to building and strengthening the rural economy extends far beyond the walls of our stores and well into the lifeline of our communities. By design, cooperatives like ours help to shape and strengthen the regions they serve by closing the philosophical divides between "buyer and seller" that guide other business structures. We achieve this by working directly within our own communities, and by recognizing that we all have a responsibility to uplift each other and help one another to prosper. We understand success as something that must be shared together because it is also together that we share in the experience of life in our beautiful Valley; this space we call home, and amongst the plentiful resources it provides.
Naturally, we remain focused on this objective during all seasons—whether hot, cold, snowy, rainy or somewhere between—however, it would be amiss to deny the buzz that circulates throughout and energizes our community during asparagus season. The arrival of fresh, Massachusetts-grown asparagus to the co-op each year is prized for much more than simply the return of a delicious and beloved local food. As one of the first outdoor crops to be harvested at springtime in New England, it also leads the way for an abundance of other local produce still to come over the course of a given year. It serves as an encouraging reminder of why we are lucky to live here and live well at the same time. It is a mark of how exceptional the soil here is for growing our own nutritious foods. It is a gesture towards us to reflect on the benefits of self-reliance so that we may more readily reject the prevailing trends of foods farmed and shipped from thousands of miles away. It urges us to seek out and seize opportunities to fight for food justice and increase access for those without it; to build food security within areas more negatively impacted by the shortcomings of a heavily corporatized food system. Finally, and as importantly, local asparagus season symbolizes the good fortune we must recognize we share together. It reveals all that we have to appreciate and compels us to continue supporting the farmers and food producers who work tirelessly to provide us with nourishing, local fare grown and raised right at home.
D.A. Smiarowski Farms is one such local farm our co-op is thankful for and always eager to support. Within each new spear of asparagus that breaks through the ground across their many acres of fertile farmland is a story; an intriguing and colorful history of food produced here in the Valley over the years. Each new crop represents just the latest chapter in a saga that continues to grow richer over time, revealing once and again how far the story of regional agriculture has come. And, just as we are fortunate enough to get to enjoy each new harvest of fresh, seasonal asparagus as it begins arriving through our doors, we likewise relish in our shared duty to continue the story of healthy, local food by ensuring local crops like asparagus maintain a prominent role in how we build its future.
Click play above to watch the latest episode in our Local Vendor Spotlight series and learn even more about fresh-grown asparagus, its significance as an essential crop in the Northeast, and why D.A. Smiarowski Farms has remained one of the most trusted growers of the world's best asparagus for nearly 100 years.