Spring Asparagus

One of our pit shops on our bus trip was to the Country Mercantile just outside of Pasco, Washington.

The Country Mercantile is an establishment where I frequent if I am going to/from the Tri Cities as they always have fresh produce on hand.  They also have an abundance of specialty food items to purchase, hand scooped ice cream, handmade chocolate and made-to-order Mexican food!   

Well, I bought 20# of fresh off-the-farm asparagus! 

I decided to can me up some pickled asparagus which I like to use for appetizers, as salad fix-ins and (for some of my friends) as a garnishment in a Bloody Mary.  I used some dry herbs my mother had just brought up from California, purchased a gallon of distilled vinegar and got busy.

Added some fresh garlic

Capped them off, and placed them into the hot water bath

TaDa!  We'll enjoy these babies throughout the year!

Needless to say, I had plenty of asparagus left, so besides grilling some for dinner I whipped up a batch of fresh asparagus soup.  Yum!