> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Organic Asparagus: What the Extra Money Actually Buys - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/organic-asparagus-what-the-extra-money-actually-buys/ - Published: 2026-09-23T18:31:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-23T18:31:08.000Z - Description: The spear you buy this spring was powered by last autumn's fern. Here's what else went into it. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: Fruit and Veg, asparagus, seasonal produce, Organic farming, pesticides Asparagus is back. New Zealand gets it fresh for [around 100 days a year](https://www.hortnz.co.nz/2020s-asparagus-season-off-to-an-early-start?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), according to the NZ Asparagus Council. Every spear is hand-picked, by pickers who walk several kilometres a day. Then it's gone until next spring. So you're standing in front of two bunches. One is organic and costs more. Here's what separates them. ## The spear is last year's work Asparagus is a perennial. Good crowns [produce well for 15 to 20 years](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), according to organic grower Bill Cummings. After harvest, growers let the plants grow into tall ferns. As those ferns die down in autumn, they [move their reserves back into the roots](https://ourlandandwater.nz/news/how-much-nitrogen-does-asparagus-need/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). That stored energy drives the next spring's spears. In other words, the spear you buy in October was mostly built last year, underground. Once it starts, it moves. In warm weather a spear can grow [up to 17 centimetres in a day](https://www.freshplaza.com/europe/article/9774465/new-zealand-asparagus-harvest-delayed-by-cold-spring/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), according to LeaderBrand's South Island manager. That's why crews pick most days. ## What gets sprayed on conventional asparagus Mostly herbicides. Weeds are the grower's big problem. In the 1980s, MAF researchers near Hamilton described season-long weed control as [a major problem for asparagus](https://caws.org.nz/old-site/awc/1992/awc199224251.pdf?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) in New Zealand's mild, wet regions. They tested four weedkillers sprayed during the cutting season: clopyralid, dicamba, amitrole and glyphosate. At the rates growers would use, residues in the spears dropped below detectable levels by day five for clopyralid. For the other three it took until day seven. Glyphosate badly damaged spears that were already up when it was sprayed, and those were graded as rejects. Spears that emerged after spraying carried far less: under 0.01 mg/kg by day five. Clopyralid was later registered for use during the cutting season, with no harvesting for three days after spraying. US figures point the same way. The Environmental Working Group ranks asparagus [seventh on its 2026 Clean Fifteen](https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fifteen.php?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), its list of conventionally grown produce with the lowest pesticide residues in USDA testing. Across that list, [nearly 60% of samples had no detectable residues](https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/press.php?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). In the USDA testing behind the [2018 list](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/clean-15?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), asparagus was tested after the bottom 5 cm was trimmed off and the spears rinsed for 15 to 20 seconds. Worth copying at home. Residue on your plate is a weak argument for paying the organic premium on asparagus. The stronger one is in the soil. ## Where organic differs: the nitrogen LandWISE, a sustainable land management group, [surveyed asparagus growers nationally](https://ourlandandwater.nz/news/how-much-nitrogen-does-asparagus-need/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) about nitrogen fertiliser. The project grew out of earlier work on vegetable growers losing nitrogen to Lake Horowhenua. The survey found no industry standard practice at all. One grower said he puts no nitrogen on his asparagus and saves it for his broccoli. Others put it on "because Dad did." Asparagus is thought of as a low-nitrogen crop. A 2019 Waikato survey suggested typical applications exceeded what the crop removes, though it had minimal field checking. International research suggests 75 kg of nitrogen per hectare can carry an established crop for three years. The best-practice advice from the review is to apply nitrogen after harvest, as the fern starts growing, to cut leaching on shallow or low water-holding soils. On the organic farm below, the feeding looks different. In 2020, Bill Cummings was feeding his crop [seaweed, fish fertiliser, molasses, compost tea and comfrey extracts](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), which he described as "bits and pieces of everything." ## One organic farm, up close Greenfern sits [between Hamilton and Cambridge](https://www.accounted4.co.nz/blog/post/136062/featured-client--greenfern-les-asperges/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Bill and Irene Cummings run it with their son Hadyn. Part of the push to go organic came from customers. At the farmers' market, shoppers [kept asking Irene what the asparagus had been sprayed with](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Today three of Greenfern's asparagus blocks are certified organic with [BioGro](https://www.biogro.co.nz/find-organic?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), with certificates running to 31 August 2027. Bill had also seen the difference in the ground. Earlier in his career, his job took him around Waikato farms testing asparagus sugar levels. He told Organic NZ in 2020 that on one organic farm the worms jumped out of the soil, while conventional farms "seemed to be scorched earth." In the same 2020 interview, Bill called asparagus an easy-care crop that needs no insecticides or fungicides. Weeds were the hard part. He was weeding mechanically through the season, and said weed control under an organic regime was difficult on top of running the packhouse. In 2020 the farm had 23 hectares, 10 of them in asparagus, and had produced up to 100 tonnes a season at its peak. One picker and his wife, who had a full-time job elsewhere, picked at night with torches on their heads. Greenfern trades weekly at the [Waikato Farmers Markets in Hamilton and Cambridge](https://www.waikatofarmersmarkets.co.nz/shop/product/463045/vegetables/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). As of October 2024, it [packed and dispatched asparagus the afternoon it was picked](https://www.accounted4.co.nz/blog/post/136062/featured-client--greenfern-les-asperges/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), reaching customers within 48 hours, and their daughter took it to the Tauranga Farmers Market. They also grow globe artichokes. According to the 2020 profile, Bill is [allergic to them](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). ## An old luxury Asparagus is believed to be [native to the Fertile Crescent](https://www.chelseagreen.com/blog/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), according to seed historian Adam Alexander, who writes that it appears in Egyptian hieroglyphs from the third millennium BCE. The Greeks described it as the fruit of a ram's horn thrust into the ground. Its name came to Greek from a Persian word for a shoot or sprout. Medieval English mangled it into "sperage", and later "sparrow grass". The Romans took it seriously. Cato wrote instructions for growing it around 200 BCE. Two centuries later, Pliny the Elder described three spears that together weighed about 325 g. By the 15th century asparagus was [grown in French monasteries](https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2021/6/asparagus-DT?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Louis XIV reportedly liked it enough to have greenhouses built so it could be grown year-round. New Zealand makes do with about 100 days a year. ## How New Zealand got here, and how scarce organic is Canned asparagus was one of the tinned vegetables that [became popular here in the 1940s and 1950s](https://teara.govt.nz/en/food-and-beverage-manufacturing/print?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), alongside sweet corn, green beans and beetroot. Growing it commercially came later. The industry [started in the 1980s](https://www.freshvegetables.co.nz/news-and-events/news/asparagus-season-in-full-flight-get-it-while-you-still-can?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), during a push to diversify New Zealand's exports and horticulture, according to Vegetables NZ. Asparagus was [a popular crop with growers in the 1990s](https://teara.govt.nz/en/market-gardens-and-production-nurseries/print?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), but grower numbers and planted area fell after outbreaks of Phytophthora, a soil-borne rot. In 2006, Te Ara records 126 growers producing 2,500 tonnes from 710 hectares, with Japan the main overseas market for fresh spears. By 2020 the NZ Asparagus Council put the industry at [around 35 growers](https://www.hortnz.co.nz/2020s-asparagus-season-off-to-an-early-start?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Fresh exports to Japan are [rare today because of air freight costs](https://www.freshvegetables.co.nz/news-and-events/news/asparagus-season-in-full-flight-get-it-while-you-still-can?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). New Zealand used to can its own asparagus. The tins you buy for asparagus rolls today have probably come from Peru. The Asparagus Council doesn't publish an organic figure that I could find. BioGro's own [directory](https://www.biogro.co.nz/find-organic?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) gives a rough count. As of September 2026 it lists eight licensees certified for asparagus, Greenfern included. Seven list asparagus as a product in its own right; one lists it among a long run of mixed vegetables. The directory doesn't say how much each one grows, and it only covers BioGro, not other certifiers. You can search it yourself for a grower near you. Bill's numbers give a sense of scale. [Thirty years ago there were probably 150 asparagus growers in the Waikato](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), he said in 2020, and now there were about ten. He blamed export and cannery markets moving to cheaper labour in Mexico and Peru. Before Greenfern converted, the only organic asparagus grower in the Waikato had been one of their packhouse customers. He retired. Bill didn't think there was much room for more organic growers. Picking is hard work, and pickers are hard to find. ## Green, white and purple Greenfern grows [purple and white asparagus as well as green](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). White is the same plant grown in the dark. Here it's grown in tunnels. In Europe the spears are covered with soil as they come up, which makes them thick enough to need peeling. New Zealand white asparagus is thinner and more tender. Greenfern's white comes from a [Dutch variety bred for a sweeter taste](https://www.waikatofarmersmarkets.co.nz/shop/product/463045/vegetables/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). The purple gets its colour from high levels of anthocyanins in the spears. Asparagus plants are also [either male or female](https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2021/6/asparagus-DT?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Female plants produce red berries. Male plants tend to be more productive and grow thicker spears. Varieties such as Jersey Giant, bred at Rutgers University in the US, are all-male. In 2020 Greenfern was [growing Jersey Giants](https://theresasjoquist.com/2020/08/asparagus/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), while moving to other varieties. ## Keeping it Refrigerate it standing upright in a glass of water, or with the ends wrapped in damp paper towels. That's the [advice from LeaderBrand](https://www.freshplaza.com/europe/article/9774465/new-zealand-asparagus-harvest-delayed-by-cold-spring/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), which also says local supply runs until the end of December. ## And the smell Harvard researchers asked 6,909 people whether they could smell asparagus in their urine. [58% of men and 62% of women couldn't](https://www.labmanager.com/can-t-smell-asparagus-pee-is-pok-mon-go-good-exercise-8412?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). The researchers linked 871 genetic variants to the inability. The paper ran in the BMJ's 2016 Christmas issue, under the title "Sniffing out significant 'Pee-values'." --- **Before you go:** If you found this useful, you can [sign up here](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup) for free, or leave a [one-off tip](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support) if you'd like to support the work.