Only In New Jersey: An Asparagus Festival On The United States' East Coast

MULLICA HILL, NJ — Mullica Hill is remembering a bit of its history by paying homage to asparagus on Saturday.

Fresh asparagus, not the canned kind.

But why asparagus? And why Mullica Hill?

On May 17, 1922, "an airplane took about 800 pounds of asparagus [from Mullica Hill] to Boston," Anthony Marino, one of the festival's coordinators of the festival and a local chef, told Patch.

"That night, it was served to the mayor of Boston and the governor," he continued. "It was the first the first produce taken by air in our country. "

The 1922 event had nothing to do with wagers, like governors and other elected leaders sometimes do when their home teams are playing each other in a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl, according to Marino.

"Back then everything was delivered locally," he said. "They were trying to get things delivered further away. So you take the unique asparagus from Mullica Hill and send it to Boston, since Massachusetts would not be able to grow asparagus for another month," he said.

Although the timing of Saturday's event aligns exactly with the 100th anniversary of the historic flight, organizers were not sure the festival would occur this year, according to Marino.

He and the Harrison Township Historical Society "got started on this late because of COVID," he said. "We weren't sure we were gonna be able to do it. And then in January, we were like, let's really start to work on this and it's really taken off since then."

Not sure if Marino intended the pun.

There have been other asparagus-themed festivals in Michigan and California, Marino said, but he truly thinks the Mullica Hill event is the first of its kind on the eastern United States seaboard.

"People are really interested in asparagus," he said. "As we tell people [about Mullica Hill's history], people say that's really cool."

New Jersey's festival will have coloring books, airplane-making supplies, games and displays of the pictures from 1922 that show the actual plane delivering the asparagus and some of the dignitaries who associated themselves with the event, Marino said.

And yes, the guest of honor — or maybe vegetable of honor is more appropriate — will also be making frequent appearances, according to Marino.

"The idea behind that was another one kind of has a lot of people have their own recipe that uses asparagus or have a recipe from their mom or grandmother," he said.

"Some people like it cooked a little bit longer, some people like it blanched and some like it not cooked much at all," Marino added. "They like it in other things like soup and frittatas. So we thought it would be cool to have the local people here, submit their recipes."

The recipes will be judged by festival attendees who buy tickets to a taste-testing event being held on Saturday and three local chefs, he said.

Marino, who is organizing the event with the help of the Harrison Township Historical Society, said he hopes to have the asparagus festival every year.

But for now, he just wants to see how this year's event goes.

"We created a website, we created a Facebook page," he said. "We're gonna see how much
interest in this year. And then we'll go from that."

Mullica Hill's Asparagus Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Old Town Hall. Proceeds from the event benefit the Harrison Township Historical Society, according to Marino.

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