Asparagus and Its Queen: The Pride of Oceana County

Tucked along Lake Michigan in West Michigan, Oceana County — anchored by the little town of Hart — calls itself the “Asparagus Capital of the World,” and it has the numbers to back up the bragging. The county grows around 80% of Michigan’s asparagus, and Michigan trails only California and Washington among asparagus-producing states.

Why here? Asparagus loves sandy soil, and Oceana has plenty of it, while cool, rainy springs off the big lake are just what the crop wants. It’s also a famously labor-intensive harvest, much of it cut by hand. And asparagus grows fast: in ideal conditions a spear can shoot up as much as an inch in an hour, so farmers have to stay right on top of the fields during the roughly mid-May-to-late-June season.

Naturally, such a proud crop gets a party. Since 1974, Hart has hosted the National Asparagus Festival — billed as the longest-running asparagus festival in the country — complete with a parade, a “Taste of Asparagus,” farm tours, and the crowning of an Asparagus Queen. For one weekend, a town of under 2,000 people more than doubles in size to celebrate a vegetable.