How to Preserve Extra Asparagus to Enjoy Later

Are you wondering how to preserve extra asparagus you might have from the season?

You might want to know how to preserve extra asparagus because you’re sick of it. Or maybe you love it so much that you find extra but now you don’t really know what to do with it all.

Perhaps life just happened and you just have some left over. There’s only so much you can eat, right?

I love asparagus just like you do. But there comes a time when asparagus becomes a want from the past.

Luckily, I’m here today to help you learn how to preserve extra asparagus you might have from the season. Once the heat of Summer gets here, asparagus is pretty much done producing.

In this post, I’ll share:

– How to preserve extra asparagus to enjoy later,
– Several ideas for other ways you can enjoy it before it goes bad,
– How long you can keep it fresh before you have to put it up.

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How Long Can You Keep Asparagus Fresh?

If you’re not keeping asparagus in the refrigerator, you can expect asparagus to stay fresh for only a couple of days.

However, asparagus will keep in the refrigerator for around 2 weeks. You’ll know when it’s on it’s last leg. It will get wilty and not crisp at all. You will know when it’s time to use it up.

But what if you don’t want it right now? In my favorite preservation book So Easy to Preserve, there’s some tried and true recipes for canning, drying, freezing and pickling. Let’s talk about some ways you can preserve it and enjoy it later.

Preserving

There’s a few ways you can preserve or use up extra asparagus. The options are very open, which is good when you have a lot of asparagus to use.

There’s canning, freezing, dehydrating, and using them in some tasty recipes to freeze for later.

You can also give extra asparagus to friends and family, sell it or give it to your animals as treats. I’m going to go into each of these a little more in depth. Let’s start with canning.

Pickling/Canning

Pickling asparagus in a canning jar is just about the most popular way to preserve asparagus. It’s definitely not the easiest route but you don’t have to pressure can pickled asparagus.

I prefer to use wide-mouth pint jars and this recipe takes makes about 6 of them. Here’s what you need:

– 10 pounds asparagus
– 6 large garlic cloves
– 4 1/2 cups water
– 4 1/2 cups white vinegar
– 6 small hot peppers
– 1/2 cup canning salt
– 3 teaspoons dill seed

Cut spears to fit canning jars. Leave 1/2 inch headspace from the top of the jar. Place a garlic clove at the bottom of each jar and tightly pack asparagus into hot jars with the tips facing up.

Make sure there’s no air bubbles and then place lids and rims on the jar. Tighten the lids fingertip tight and place into the waterbath canner. Bring the waterbath canner to a boil and process for 10 minutes.

If you’re not a fan of pickled asparagus, you can definitely still can fresh asparagus. However, this does need to be pressure canned. I have a complete tutorial on another page that will tell you exactly how:

Here’s how to pressure can fresh asparagus

Freeze

One of the easiest ways to put up fresh asparagus is to freeze it. You can blanch or not blanch – it’s totally up to you.

Remember that blanching is the art of heating up the asparagus in boiling water and then plunging it into cold water. This helps to preserve the color and taste of the asparagus during freezing.

Another tip before you freeze asparagus is to place them separately on cookie sheets until just frozen. Then, place into large freezer bags. This will keep all the asparagus spears from freezing together. Then, you can enjoy one at a time if you’d like without thawing out the entire bag.

You can make frozen asparagus several ways. It’s just as delicious grilled, fried, roasted or thrown into recipes. I’ll share some tasty recipes with you a little bit later.

Dehydrate

Dried asparagus spears make a super tasty treat. If you enjoy your spears crispy, I think you’ll really like to try dried asparagus spears as a tasty snack.

All you have to do is wash the asparagus spears completely and cut in half. Then, you can steam 4-5 minutes to preserve the color of the asparagus through drying.

Finally, you’ll need a great dehydrator. I love using this one. Lay the spears inside and dry for about 4-6 hours. Or until it’s as crispy as you like it.

Remember this is simply a way to preserve it. You can also use dehydrated asparagus in recipes. Let me introduce some great ones to you.

Tasty Asparagus Recipes to Try

Here are some great tried and true popular recipes for asparagus. I hope you like them!

Cream of Asparagus Soup – Delish

Asparagus Leek Soup – Taste of Home

Stir Fry – Taste of Home

Cheesy Grilled Asparagus

Bake in the oven with fresh garlic and Olive Oil

Wrap asparagus spears in bacon and grill it until bacon is crispy

Drizzle with Olive oil and sprinkle with your favorite cheese. Then, bake until the cheese is melted.

I hope you enjoy some of these. They are some of my favorites for sure. Also, know that you can make a recipe using asparagus and freeze it for later! Just another way to preserve it and enjoy it in the future.

Pet Treats

If you have chickens or pigs at home, have them try some asparagus. I think you’ll find that they really like it. Asparagus stalks make great little treats for these animals that will eat just about anything.

Grow and Sell Fresh Asparagus

If you’re a gardener like me, you might have your own asparagus patch! Asparagus is definitely fun to grow.

Go here to learn how to grow fresh asparagus.

When you do have extra asparagus, you can definitely sell it. Ask around your community to see if anyone would be interested. You’ll be very surprised with the number of people who are looking to buy it. You can even have people come out to your patch and pick their own if you’d like.

Share with Others

Now, if you don’t feel like selling your extra asparagus, you can definitely just give it away. Sharing is caring.

I hope you gained some ideas and resources from this post for how to preserve fresh asparagus before it goes bad. No one likes to see asparagus go to waste! I hope this helps you to use up that asparagus before it does.

Also, please feel free to share this post with someone you know who might need it. Enjoy that asparagus!

~ Much Love ~

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