The Stalk Market Soars

Falling asparagus prices signal a strong early-Spring season and the easiest recipes you’ll ever find.

Patti LaBelle’s ‘Awesome Asparagus’ (photo by Donna Pierce)

You won't find me searching for signs of spring in the flower garden or marking off calendar squares. Here in Santa Monica, where I photograph dandelion blooms in January, I rely most on my supermarket’s produce section or neighborhood farmers market to hint the changing season.

My revised plan, leaving robins and dandelions out of the prediction, follows one simple rule: Winter officially ends and spring begins when the price of asparagus stalks, ranging from slender to chunky, declines.