In eastern Massachusetts, the bog-standard cranberry holds the mantle of “state fruit” (technically, “state berry”).But in western Mass., a third grade class and several lawmakers have been the tip of the spear in calls to make asparagus the state vegetable.
Celebrated for its unique flavor and putting Hadley on the map as its premier crop, the green spears are revered in the Pioneer Valley.
A favorite of Queen Elizabeth II, what’s known locally as “Hadley grass” has been the subject of royal meals, annual festivals and a unique harvesting method to boot.
For the past the few months, it’s also been the subject of a special legislative push, helmed, in part, by third grader Ben Jekanowski.
“Our reading group was reading a book about a New Hampshire school that changed their state fruit from strawberry to pumpkin,” he told reporters Saturday, referencing the efforts of the Wells Memorial Elementary School that date back to around 2006. “That inspired our class to write persuasive letters about making asparagus our state vegetable.”
Benny, along with the rest of his classmates at Hadley Elementary School, began their efforts last fall, when they reached out to state lawmakers about elevating the perennial veggie.
One of the effort’s overseers, teacher Charlene Desjardins, said it all started with a guided reading exercise to students wondering: what exactly is the state vegetable? Given how some of the eight-year-olds previously enjoyed writing about the town’s annual asparagus festival, the reading exercise soon turned into something else entirely.
“What I had in my lesson plan was… we're just going to all write friendly letters to Governor Healey. They went off in a little yellow envelope, and … I was hopeful we'd get a letter back, a response - I could have never envisioned this,” Desjardins recounted, describing how the small project grew as a lobbying effort and involved other students and fellow educators like Erin Wang. “I walked into the office to get the stamps and my superintendent, Anne McKenzie, and Jen Dowd, my principal, were there, and Anne said ‘Oh, let me reach out to Senator Comerford and Representative Gomez and see if they could come and talk to the kids about the process of a bill.’ We were like, ‘this is awesome.’”
Sure enough, bills materialized.
2nd Hampshire Representative Homar Gomez and Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester Sen. Jo Comerford took the lead, and only a few weeks ago, the proposed legislation was reported favorably out of one committee and sent to another: a lesson on lawmaking that students got to see themselves during a May 20 meeting.
Comerford says it could be some time before the bills advance further and potentially reach the governor’s desk, but in the meantime, lawmakers have been getting more familiar with the vegetable with its iconic shoot and scaly top.
Kevin Jekanowski, Ben’s father and a fourth-generation farmer in Hadley, led a special lecture for them over the weekend.
“We have deep, rich topsoil, and this was all left by a lake that was once here… called Lake Hitchcock,” he said as his family and legislators stood before a table loaded with asparagus trivia. “
As he told lawmakers Saturday, the family farm as well as other plots across the valley were blessed with some of the richest soil in the world thanks to an ancient glacial lake.
It’s meant high-quality tobacco being grown across the Connecticut River Valley, but in Hadley in particular, it’s helped create uniquely flavored asparagus that’s highly sought after.
The harvest method is also unique: Jekanowski demonstrated as much as he took a slim rod with a sharpened end and stabbed it into the earth and base of each foot-tall spear in the field.
“We'll let it grow like this for about two years, and I think after the third year we'll start getting some stalks that are fatter and more healthy looking… and after the third year, we may pick it for like two weeks because we don't want to over pick it, and then we'll just leave the field,” he said as a handful of newly-cut spears quickly turned into a bundle.
Comerford says it’s a commitment, and one worth celebrating. Speaking with reporters, the senator emphasized that no matter the crop, farming in Massachusetts is a tough business. In fact, she said, the state lost 27,000 farm acres between 2017 and 2022 alone.
She argues honoring western Mass. farmers with the state vegetable designation is among the least the state can do.
“We give a lot to Massachusetts, right? We grow the food for our neighbors, we purify the water, we sequester carbon, we create biohabitats and diversity, we have outdoor recreation,” she said. “These are many, many gifts, and to be able to see and recognize farms and farming and the agrarian way of life, and be able to say… ‘In Massachusetts, we grow this vegetable and have for hundreds and hundreds of years, and it is coveted around the world, and it puts us on the map’… which we're very proud of, not only in western Massachusetts but the state… it would mean everything.”
Gomez echoed the call Saturday, emphasizing not just the economic impact of exporting crops, but also the agritourism that comes with Hadley grass. He said as much while sampling special “asparagus ice cream” produced by the nearby Flayvors of Cook Farm – a sweet blend that’s almost vanilla-like in flavor, plus some shreds of asparagus and almonds to round it out.
“I was a little hesitant the first time I heard about asparagus ice cream, I have to be honest about it, right?” he told WAMC. “But when I tried it the first time, I was happily surprised, because [that] ice cream is one of the best ones I've ever tried.”
