On a Sunday last month, I was invited along to learn all about asparagus at Edgecombe Brothers Asparagus Master Class. I was picturing asparagus picking on a farm and cooking in some sort of a shed 
which isn’t usually my thing but I LOVE asparagus and have been trying to cook more at home so I thought why not.
As we approached Edgecombe Brothers Estate, I was excited that the Asparagus Master Class setting was completely different to what I had pictured…
This is my view looking out to the lake as I enjoyed a latte and home-made Anzac biscuits on arrival…
Our Asparagus Master Class was run by the highly passionate Alfred Edgecombe (better referred to as “Alf”), one of the brothers who own Edgecombe Brothers Estate. It was really inspiring to hear the story about how Alf and his brothers first started growing asparagus in the 1990s initially in his brother George’s backyard. Now they have 2HA of asparagus and we got to see the asparagus fields first hand.
Armed with a knife, we each picked asparagus to take back for lunch…
Back at Edgecombe Brothers Estate, as we enjoyed bread, cheese and wine, we trimmed the asparagus so that they were roughly the same length…
Alf explains that cooking asparagus al dente is just like cooking pasta. The asparagus is perfect when it’s not too hard but not too soft. He stood all the asparagus in a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes and then pan fried it with Edgecombe Chilli Infused Oil. Cooking it on this special BBQ reminds me of making homemade tomato sauce in burger boy’s Uncle Paul’s Garage…
I must have been so focussed on the asparagus cooking that I didn’t notice the boots featured on this BBQ until writing this blog post! Or maybe it was the wine we had to enjoy with our freshly picked asparagus topped with parmesan cheese which distracted me
Before leaving for work, I had a second latte and learnt that Alf made the wooden table featured…
Alf tells us that their asparagus has a 9 month growing season which starts in July and goes until April, with November being the prime time. Edgecombe Brothers Estate uses most of the asparagus they pick for their cafe and sells any surplus at Maggie Place and just outside their estate in the Swan Valley. His tip to keeping asparagus fresh for up to two weeks is to put them in water in the fridge. I’m going to have to make space in my fridge!
Edgecombe Brothers Asparagus Master Class runs until 12 December (visit Edgecombe Brothers website for more info). It’s $58.50 pp on weekends and $48.50 pp during the week. For all the coffee, cheese, bread, wine and of course asparagus we ate – I think it’s value for money considering we spent half a day with Alf learning about asparagus. The other attendees included a foodie who bought her dad Edgecombe Brothers Asparagus Master Class as a Father’s Day present and the other attendees were tourists – Edgecombe Brothers certainly showcased WA in a positive light!
