Vive las verduras

Excursion: picking Navarrese asparagus in the fields

The excursion started off with a visit to an asparagus farm owned by Leoncio Beriáin in the town of Oricin, in the Valdorba region of Navarre. For about half an hour the farmer explained all the details of harvesting asparagus: planting time, the harvesting period, important information to bear in mind when harvesting (temperature, the amount of time needed, the ideal season for harvesting, size, calibre, the use of plastic, etc.). In short, everything you need to know to produce the finest white asparagus in Navarre.

After this first stage, having stored the asparagus in baskets, the harvested product is sent to the plants where the vegetable is transformed and processed for subsequent distribution and marketing.

The next stop on the excursion was thus the Grupo AN plant in Caparroso. Here the company's communications manager, Fernando Beroiz, and plant manager, Alfonso Adrián, explained the process applied to the asparagus from their arrival in the panniers from the fields until their final presentation before being marketed.

The group watched how, after their arrival at the plant, an initial calibre test is made to determine how much should be paid to the farmer for his asparagus. Subsequently, the vegetables undergo a hydrocooling process whereby they are chilled rapidly to a temperature of 2 ºC.

The official classification of the product then takes place, for which the asparagus are cut to equal lengths and washed. At this point the true selection process of white asparagus is done so they can be covered by the Specific Designation of Navarra Asparagus. Prior to this, all the asparagus that have turned green or violet through over-exposure to light, or the ones that are not of the right calibre, have been rejected.

Once all the asparagus have been duly selected, the time has come to package them. They are either grouped in bunches and kept in polyspan boxes (especially for the hotel and restaurant sector) or peeled to be canned.

The final step is their distribution (whether in bunches, boxes or cans). The excursion thus ended up at the Grupo AN facility in Tudela where they could see how the asparagus is distributed and marketed, along with other vegetables such as Tudela lettuce hearts, Tudela artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower and chard. This is thus the final step before cooking the vegetables. To round off a day totally dedicated to the asparagus, the visitors finished off with lunch in Tudela where, hardly surprisingly, asparagus was the star product.

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