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ASPARAGUS SEASON AND OTHER FESTS

From the outdoor markets, grocery stores and roadside stands to the tiniest bistro and most elegant restaurant, asparagus mania runs rampant in Germany.

Asparagus is quite a serious business in Germany, especially in Berlin. Spargelzeit (Asparagus season) heralds the fact that spring has arrived. What a cheerful sight to see people travelling from all over Europe to enjoy what Germans tends to call their Konigliche Gemnse or Royal Vegetable.

People celebrate the much anticipated arrival of the exotic vegetable and restaurants supplement their regular menu's with a special asparagus menu. With more than 50 ways to serve it, (ranging from an ultra-delicious creamy asparagus soup to pork or veal schnitzel served with asparagus) the choice is quite simple: asparagus and more asparagus.

They even have an annual 'Asparagus Queen and King' pageant (whoever weighs in the heaviest asparagus stalk) and an asparagus peeling contest (Helmut Zipner, affectionately known in Germany as the Spargel-Tarzan, is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as peeling a ton of asparagus in 16 hours). You'll also find special seminars and organized tours of asparagus farms and asparagus cooking classes.

Asparagus have become a booming tourism business in Germany. Berlin is known to grow some of the world's best white asparagus, a vegetable they believe to have cleansing and healing properties. Like most Europeans, Germans prefer white asparagus to green asparagus, which they achieve by growing the stalks under mounds of earth so the sun doesn't strike them to produce chlorophyll.

The roots of asparagus cultivation in Germany dates back to 1565, when The 'Catalogue of Herbs and Trees in the Princely Garden' in Stuttgart referred to this 'delightful fare for lovers of food.' Legend also has it that Duke Christoph von Wnrttemberg became aware that asparagus was relished as an exceptionally savory tidbit in many of Europe's most discriminating courts, and ordered the vegetable to be planted in his garden.

It remained a luxury only to the nobility until the mid-19th century. Still considered somehow expensive, the royal vegetable is now available for all to be devoured. It's also said that when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, just 25 hectares were planted with asparagus in the area of the former East Germany. Today there's about 16,000 hectares.

Asparagus season in Germany runs from late April until June 24.

How to get there: Lufthansa German Airlines, fly to Berlin via Frankfurt daily. Flights depart from Cape Town at 4.10 pm and from Johannesburg at 7.25 pm.

For reservations and bookings call Lufthansa on 0860-572-573 (nationwide)

Festivals around the world?b>

• Munich Oktoberbierfest, Germany 2002: September 21 until October 6
• Florida Strawberry Festival, USA 2002: February 28 until March 10
• Ficksburg Cherry Festival, South Africa 2001: November 15 until November 17
• Paris Le Salon Du Chocolat Festival, France October 30 until November 4 (every year)
• Acqualagna Truffle Fair, Italy November 1 until November 4 (every year)
• Baena Olive and Olive Oil Festival, Spain November 16 until November 17 (every year)
• London National Honey Show, UK 2001: November 15 until November 17 (starts 3rd Thursday of every Nov.)
• Thai Beer Festival, (Bangkok, Thailand) November 20 until January 15 (every year)
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• Alkmaar Cheese Fair, Netherlands April 9 until September 10 (every Friday, every year)