They are fifth generation farmers in Monetta, South Carolina who have been producing it since the early 1900s when it was grown on a grand scale in the asparagus belt, the counties bordering the eastern side of the Savannah river. This area of SC produced more asparagus than anywhere else in the US during those early decades. The asparagus grown in this area is superior than any other asparagus grown around the world due to the iodine rich soils in these counties along the Savannah river. The iodine creates an asparagus flavor that is unparalleled in sweetness, crispness and tenderness.
However, the asparagus farming families began to fall away when California began draining the Colorado river to flood the desert to convert it to farmland. They are now the soul surviving asparagus farm in South Carolina from that era, and truly represent a living piece of American agricultural and culinary history.
Today commercially grown Mexican and Peruvian asparagus is available year round flooding the market with lower quality, cheaper asparagus that’s old, dried out, and woody by the time it arrives requiring lots of trimming and waste because it’s too tough to eat. Andrew Fallaw, the patriarch of the operation, said in Mexico the farms will bring hundreds of prisoners out to work the fields and harvest for free. He said there’s no way to compete with that. We at Bradford Farm disagree. We know that customers want the very best. It may cost a little bit more, but the best asparagus on the planet is worth it. It’s a very short season at Monetta. About six weeks in total. That leaves the rest of the year for the ‘other’ asparagus. This farm is too valuable for South Carolina to lose.
But it’s not just for these reasons that we are working with them. Their asparagus is unquestionably the absolute best!
