This nutrient-rich, abundant crop is the definition of an industry success story.
LANCE MCMILLAN / FOR METRO
Charles Welsh, of Welsh Bros., poses on his field with asparagus that recently started to sprout, Scotland, Ontario, May 3, 2017.
Odds are the fresh Ontario asparagus you now see in stores — the first stock of the season -— is tasty Guelph Millennium. It’s become a popular local food, a made-in-Ontario success story, credited by farmers for breathing life into what’s become a $30-million crop.
“If not for Guelph Millennium, we would not have a viable industry in Ontario today,” says Bernie Solymar, executive director of the Asparagus Growers of Ontario. “That’s the bottom line.”
May is shaping up to be a great month for asparagus, Ontario’s earliest commercial field crop. Warm spring days have arrived, and varieties such as Guelph Millennium are leaping out of the ground.
LANCE MCMILLAN / FOR METRO
\Moving at a slow pace on a vehicle that traverses the field, a worker on uses a knife to remove asparagus on the Welsh Bros. farm in Scotland, Ontario, May 3, 2017. The criteria for removing the asparagus is that it be 9 inches, also the same size of the knife they are using.
In fact, once asparagus breaks through the Earth’s crust, farmers say you can actually sit and watch it climb skyward. Indeed, it can grow as much as 25 cm in a single day.
When it reaches its peak, about two weeks from now, farmers will have their hands full — literally, because they harvest it by hand, with a knife. It grows so fast that on hot days they have to cut it twice a day.
But they really don’t mind. It’s money in the bank.
To farmers, a crop’s output, called “yield,” is vital. To stay afloat, farmers have be profitable. One way they do it is by growing high yielding crop varieties.
For asparagus farmers, that’s where Guelph Millennium comes in handy. Its yield per acre is double that of older asparagus varieties. That makes growing asparagus attractive to farmers.
LANCE MCMILLAN / FOR METRO
A worker holds up freshly cut asparagus that is loaded onto a truck where it is then sent to the facility where it will be cut, sorted and cleaned.
In fact, in Ontario, acreage has increased to 3,400 acres — up 700 acres in just the past four years. And Guelph Millennium comprises 100 per cent of the new asparagus plantings in the province.
There’s more. The same Guelph Millennium plant can be productive for more than 15 years. That’s about twice as long as competitive varieties. Plus, it doesn’t buckle when the mercury dives. Guelph Millennium is now grown as far north as Saskatoon. And thanks to Fox Seeds, Ontario asparagus growers’ own brand, Guelph Millennium is even being registered for farmers in chilly Russia.
But while field performance is an important part of the Guelph Millennium story, there are other reasons it’s a superstar variety, too.
First, it’s high in vitamins such as folic acid, potassium, thiamine and B6. As well, it’s a decent source of fibre. And it’s low in calories and sodium.
LANCE MCMILLAN / FOR METRO
A worker carries a basket of asparagus that will soon be sorted and packaged.
As well, in a happy coincidence, a study showed Guelph Millennium is blessed with significantly higher levels than any other asparagus variety of an antioxidant called rutin, also found in buckwheat, onions and black olives.
In the gut, bacteria convert rutin to a beneficial anti-inflammatory compound called quercetin.
Studies by former Guelph nutrition researcher Dr. Krista Power, now with the University of Ottawa, revealed that even at very low levels, rutin-rich Guelph Millennium had extraordinary benefits. For example, it helped laboratory mice heal from intestinal damage caused by colitis, a condition that contributes to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
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