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MATCH THE WORDS
AND ANSWERS
BELOW...

Asparagus is a perennial member of the Lily family that also includes onions, leeks and garlic. Tiny plants called crowns or roots are planted in a furrow and it takes a cycle of three years before a field can be harvested nearly every day for the full season of 60 - 90 days. There is the growing stage, the fern stage and the dormant or "sleep" stage, all are needed so the asparagus plants can grow big and strong.

In the spring, workers walk the furrows and select the stalks that are ready to harvest and cut them with a special long-handled knife. The worker keeps holding as many asparagus spears between his fingers as he can until he can't hold any more. Then he lays them in a bunch on top of the ground. Other workers come with a tractor and pick up the bunches, load them in a sled on the tractor and take them to a packing shed.

The spears are washed, trimmed and sorted by hand to the various sizes - jumbo, extra large, large, standard and small. They are packed in wood crates or cardboard cartons. Space is left on the top of the box because asparagus will still grow! The asparagus is given a chlorine ice bath through a hydro cooler and then stored in cold rooms until sold.

The farmer is proud of his fresh asparagus. People especially like to eat asparagus at Easter time, but it really is a good vegetable to eat all the time. It has a lot of good things in it that help your body to be healthy. The Five-a-Day program thinks asparagus is great!

Asparagus, or 'gras as the farmers call it, is good to eat and good for you!

CAN YOU MATCH THE WORDS BELOW ON THE LEFT
WITH THE ANSWERS TO THE RIGHT?

PERENNIAL

CROWN

FURROW

HARVEST

CRATE

HYDROCOOLER

CHLORINE

FARMER

VEGETABLE

FIVE-A-DAY

VITAMINS

'GRAS

STALK

GREEN

LILY

BULB

GROW

FERN

DORMANT

BUNCH

Someone who tells you that eating 5 vegetables and/or fruits a day help keep you healthy

Lives from year to year

A "slang" word for asparagus

Plants that grow from bulbs

Gathering the crop

Sleep

Natural ingredients found in foods necessary for our Bodies to grow

Asparagus plant

Increase in size

Someone who grows food

Spears collected together

Asparagus spear

Container for asparagus with open spaces to provide air circulation

Trench in the earth made by a plow

Produced by letting an asparagus spear grow until it stops growing

Ice water bath machine

Something to eat that is produced by plants

Mixed with water to help destroy germs

Underground bud that sends out roots

Color of asparagus

CALIFORNIA ASPARAGUS COMMISSION ● CHERIE WATTE ANGULO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
1331 E. Barbara Worth Drive, Holtville, California 92250
Tele: (209) 474-7581 or Fax: (209) 474-9105 E-mail: ccwatte@hotmail.com

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