I remember going out with my family, when I was a child, foraging for wild asparagus along ditches and fence lines. My grandmother would use her apron to hold the bounty of spears and deposit them in a dish pan as she and my mother would visit and pick the wild asparagus, on a warm spring day. These days you won't find wild asparagus due to spraying and cultivation practices but the happy memories are still there. Now I just pick asparagus in my garden ~ the variety is probably Martha Washington.
When gathering, simply take the end of the asparagus spear between your thumb and forefinger and bend until it breaks, the spear automatically breaks just where the woody part ends and the fresh, juicy asparagus begins. That being said, you can peel the woody parts and use the tender centers, on the larger spears. I like to cut the spears at or near ground level rather than leave the stalks (and then snap them), as they are just in the way as the new, fresh spears are growing.
