Asparagus season starting in Tri-Cities
The blunt tips of asparagus spears shoot through the dirt, transforming from pale white underground to purple and then green.
Asparagus heads were beginning to emerge Wednesday from farmer Jim Middleton's fields near Ringold Road in Franklin County.
Middleton expected workers to cut the early spears today as Midd Farms nears commercial harvest in the next week.
"You can't coax it out of the ground," he said. "It's going to come when it comes."
Asparagus farms just north of Pasco and in Burbank are starting commercial harvest this week, while farms farther north, where it has been cooler, are a few days behind, said Alan Schreiber, executive director of the Washington Asparagus Commission.
The temperature has to hit 52 degrees before asparagus will come out of the ground, he said







Asparagus Harvest Begins