Melba's Jammin' > wrote:

>In article
>,
>I prefer the fatter stalks to the pencil-thin stalks. I hold the top
>(maybe halfway up) of the stalk in my left hand and the bottom of the
>stalk in my right hand and bend. It breaks where it will. I toss the
>bottom part (might be as much as 2"). If I am feeling virtuous
>(something that rarely occurs) I may peel the bottom part and use it for
>soup. Mostly I don't.

Asparagus stems are among the vegetable scraps we routinely
set aside to use to make vegetable stock. Much of our cooking
is dependent upon having stock on hand. (Generally we freeze
it in ice-cube trays, sometimes in larger containers.)

The only vegetable scraps we discard are crucifers.

Steve