Bassano white Asparagus PDO, from noble food of the Serenissima to DOP recognition

The Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and Repression of Fraud (ICQRF) of agri-food products of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf) has renewed the authorisation , by Ministerial Decree, for CSQA to carry out checks for the Designation of Protected Origin White asparagus from Bassano for the next three years.

The White Asparagus of Bassano was already esteemed in the early sixteenth century by the Serenissima as a noble food, as traces of it can be found in the accounting of banquets offered to guests of great respect.

An estimate confirmed at a European level in modern times by the PDO recognition in November 2007.

The production area of Bassano white asparagus includes around ten municipalities in the province of Vicenza and is bordered by the Brenta river.
It involves around fifty operators for a total production of around 800 quintals.

Harvested every day at dawn to guarantee the highest quality of the product, after harvesting the asparagus are washed, cleaned and selected strictly by hand.
They are then tied with a willow sucker called "Stroppa" on which the tricolor label bearing a serial number which leads back to the harvest date and the producer is applied.
This is an irrefutable characteristic of Bassano White Asparagus PDO .

The cultivation of shoots follows an ancient local tradition whereby every year the harvest begins on St. Joseph's Day, March 19th and ends on St. Anthony of Padua's Day, June 13th.

Bassano asparagus is an excellence , a niche product, increasingly sought after even abroad .
Success is linked to the quality of a product that is the result of great work, and to the synergy with the territory that promotes food and wine tourism.