This morning we packed up from our free-camp, commuted into town along smooth, shaded bike paths, and headed straight to McDonald's for work and lots of ice cream sundaes. When we're done, we'll scope out a promising Chinese restaurant for dinner and then head back to our free-camp. It's a great system.

While I'm so busy doing nothing, I wanted to write about… spargel. Here in Frankonia, this small region of Bavaria, asparagus is in season!

There are fields of it everywhere: long ditches and mounds planted with the stuff. The asparagus grows in darkness, and when the top reaches the surface, the whole thing gets yanked out and lopped off. Apparently seasonal workers come for the harvest, and I'm sure its a muddy (when raining), back-aching affair.

Many, many restaurants feature this seasonal delicacy. Spargel, spargel, everywhere!

The other day, we bought some spargel of our own from a roadside stand. Asparagus sounds so much better in German. Spargel, spargel, spargel.

A few nights ago, I cooked the spears and served them with homemade Hollandaise sauce. It looks gross in the photo, but it was delicious. I also got an enormous amount of pleasure making the sauce with my camping kit, considering I was supposed to have a stainless steel bowl, whisk, double boiler, and a few other fancy things. With a little creativity, our collapsible silicon bowl, and a titanium spork, it turned out just as it was supposed to.

Yum!

I love spargel. So much so that I was one for Halloween a few years back. Who can make an impromptu asparagus costume in under a half an hour with zero budget? I can. I have so many marketable skills.