Asparagus Festival and Brews Pt 1

Asparagus Festival and Brews Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. Even though acreage has been cut in half since its 1980s peak, thanks to canary closures, Washington state still grows more asparagus than any state but California. These days, 90% of the asparagus grown here goes the fresh market.

So in 2016, a group of the remaining famers started the Asparagus Festival and Brews that is coming up this Saturday at Middleton Six Sons Farms in Pasco ...

MIDDLETON ... "There is festivals for apples, there's festivals for blueberries, and over there on the west side there's tulip festivals, so why can't we have an asparagus festival too?"

One of those six sons, Scott Middleton says it's a group effort ...

MIDDLETON ... "I think this will be our fifth year doing it and we partner with the Washington Asparagus Commission, which is kind of a group of all the asparagus farmers in the state, to really highlight asparagus."

He says with a spring harvest, the timing seemed like a no-brainer ...

MIDDLETON ... "Not a lot is harvested in the spring like asparagus. You know, most things are summer and fall crops so it kind of created a unique window, a unique harvest window for us to do something that celebrates it and really brings awareness to it."

So, Middleton says if you love asparagus, this is the festival for you ...

MIDDLETON ... "We host it on our farm. So, the idea is that you can come from the west side, you could come from you know locally around the Columbia Basin, and actually get to go on a field tour where the asparagus is harvested and actually see it get harvested and then bring all these food trucks out and all of them have asparagus on their menu items."

Go to www.middletonsixsonsfarms.com for tickets and directions.

Listen tomorrow for more on the Asparagus Festival and Brews this Saturday.

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