{"id":4303,"date":"2016-05-29T23:36:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T23:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4303"},"modified":"2016-05-29T23:36:22","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T23:36:22","slug":"the-first-asparagus-picking-nk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/the-first-asparagus-picking-nk\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Asparagus Picking NK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the first <\/span>Nederlands Kampioenschap (NK) <\/span><\/i>(Dutch Championship) <\/span>asperges steken <\/span><\/i>(picking asparagus). <\/span>Deelnemers <\/span><\/i>(participants) from the twelve Dutch provinces competed on the <\/span>aspergekwekerij <\/span><\/i>(asparagus farm) <\/span>Boereblij <\/span><\/i>in Blaricum, province <\/span>Noord-Holland <\/span><\/i>(North Holland).<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, we covered the first NK\u00a0<\/em>tegenwindfietsen<\/em><\/a>. The Dutch like to invent creative championships to compete against each other!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Het Kampioenschap<\/em>
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Titus Galema from Marknesse, Flevoland won, and is now Nederlands Kampioen Asperge Steken. He picked 1,45 kg (ca. 3 lbs)<\/p><\/div>\n

The <\/span>deelnemers <\/span><\/i>had 15 minutes to pick <\/span>asperges <\/span><\/i>on a strip of 80 meters (ca. 27 ft) of <\/span>akker <\/span><\/i>(field). The <\/span>deelnemer <\/span><\/i>that picks most <\/span>asperges<\/span><\/i>\u00a0in weight in that time, wins. Besides the honor of receiving the title <\/span>Nederlands Kampioen Asperge \u00a0<\/span><\/i>(best asparagus picker of the Netherlands) for a year, the winner can also pick a Michelin restaurant of choice for a fancy dinner!<\/span><\/p>\n

Mari\u00eblle Bakker, organiser and host of the\u00a0kampioenschap<\/em>, says about the technique to be applied: “Een goede steker zoekt\u00a0het kopje van de asperge,\u00a0steekt dan in \u00e9\u00e9n keer onder de grond en trekt de asperge voorzichtig eruit<\/em>” (a good picker looks for the head of the asparagus, picks then in one time underground and then carefully pulls the asparagus out).<\/p>\n

Aspergegerechten<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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White, green and purple asperges<\/em>. The white ones are the most popular, and were the ones picked in this kampioenschap<\/em>. (Image by Aceera BV at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0).<\/p><\/div>\n

The challenge comes in time with the start of the <\/span>aspergeseizoen <\/span><\/i>(asparagus season). It is a very popular <\/span>groente <\/span><\/i>(vegetable) in the Netherlands, and there are many <\/span>aspergegerechten <\/span><\/i>(asparagus dishes) that the Dutch eat. How do we prepare <\/span>asperges <\/span><\/i>traditionally in the Netherlands? The <\/span>kok <\/span><\/i>(chef) in the video below can explain it quite well!<\/span><\/p>\n