Fresh, healthy, and easy to cook, asparagus isn’t just a side dish; it’s a vegetable with a fascinating backstory. Behind every spear is two decades of breeding work, from crossing varieties to years of global trials. Now, breeders like Cindy Rouet of Fox Seeds are going further — breeding not just for yield and disease resistance, but for flavour, nutrition, and even drought resilience. Imagine asparagus bred to work with robots, packed with compounds that fight disease, or carrying unique flavour notes mapped right to its genome. We also talk with food writer Irene Matys about what makes this vegetable so special.