The A-Z of Scottish Food: A is for Asparagus
And rightly so: nobody believed it was possible to grow asparagus on a commercial scale in the rainy West of Scotland until Robert Ritchie of Barrangary Farm, Bishopton, and James Mackie of neighbouring Barnhill Farm, Inchinnan, tried it. On their hands and knees they planted out 30,000 crowns on an elevated south-facing field of light, crumbly soil at Barnhill, and lifted the first crop a whole week earlier than the traditional start of the English asparagus season of St George's Day on May 23. They christened it Albaragus. It was so fresh it could almost be eaten raw (I can testify to that: I ate it straight from the field), and ticked all the right boxes for being as local as it was possible to get. Restaurants in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Glasgow and Edinburgh snapped it up, and the boys became instant local heroes during its short three-week season. They opened a van on the road to the farm, and sold almost 600 bunches. So much for the Scots not liking their veg, eh?
