FRAUENFELD - Growers in Thurgau cut the first asparagus of the season in the second week of April after a cool start. Volumes were modest. Farm-gate prices held. Roadside stalls between Frauenfeld and the Lake Constance shore opened on the usual honour-system tables.
Labour, as ever, is the constraint. Seasonal workers from Eastern Europe still fill the rows. Housing them in a tight canton is harder than hiring them.
A small crop with a loud lobby
Asparagus will not decide farm policy. It will appear in every spring photograph from the midlands, which is why the union likes the date.