With the arrival of April, farmers markets come alive again after the winter doldrums in the Northern Hemisphere. For many of us, that means the return of asparagus spears—primarily slim and green in North America, and chunky and white in Europe. (As for white asparagus, it’s not actually a different plant. Unlike the green spears, which grow in the sun, the white version is shielded from sunlight as it grows to prevent photosynthesis.)

It seems we often end up talking about plants that aren’t grown from seed in these photo gallery posts, like apples (grafting), and bananas (cloning). While asparagus can be cultivated from seed, doing so means you’ll wait an additional year to eat it, and who wants to do that? Instead, most