06/02/2023
Description
Palazzetto, a small hamlet of San Dona' di Piave, just across the embankment that runs along the Piave river.
Palazzetto is made up of a few houses, several fields and a tavern. The Venetian Republic, among the various hydraulic works it carried out to divert the course of the river, had a series of 'arzerini' (fixed embankments) built, but these did not hold back the force of the river, which instead, perhaps aided by one or more flood phenomena, broke through these embankments and flooded the land downstream from Eraclea, forming the so-called Piave Lake.
The soil is therefore extremely sandy, with a coarse texture, just as the asparagus likes it. But there is one more characteristic, it is said that there is also a saline wedge insinuated by the sea, which makes the soil rich in salts; the soil seems to be the secret behind the taste of the Palazzetto asparagus, a true asparagus terroir, which if you move a few hundred metres further on, already changes flavour.
An asparagus plant can live about 20 years, even 30, left free among the grasses. First it has to be sown and the first year it is left to grow undisturbed, so that the 'paw' grows a little, otherwise it risks dying if it gets too small. After a couple of years, when the 'paw' (the rhizome composed of buds and roots from which the sprout is then born) is big enough, it is transplanted into the furrows that you prepare in the field, about 4 by 1 metre. In the third year then the plant starts, so only in the fourth year does harvesting begin. And here there are two ways: either the plant is left free to grow in the light, so that the shoots, which are the edible part, are enriched with chlorophyll and turn green, or the plants are covered with soil, so that the shoot grows in the dark and remains white.
Whether white or green, this asparagus remains special for the savoury and strong taste that we then find on the palate! Even the fertiliser is strictly organic, it costs 4/5 times as much as a normal fertiliser, and more than justifiably so in the value of this product, an absolutely good, clean and fair product.
Seasonality
Production begins in mid-March, thanks also to mulching that anticipates ripening, and ends in late May/early June.
Production area
The municipalities of San Donà di Piave and Eraclea, in the province of Venice.
The cultivation area of the Palazzetto asparagus extends from the sea inland, along the course of the Piave river, in the lightest and most alluvial soils, and is characterised by a typically coastal climate, with summers that are not excessively hot and winters mitigated by the presence of the sea.
