Asparagus

"Asparagus grows up to 10cm per day. It takes seven days a week to harvest it. Here in the prison, twenty young prisoners work on the vegetable production under surveillance. In spring, they will cut the asparagus once or twice a day. The mounds are reheaped each week by the machine, protecting the asparagus from the sun to keep it white. From 21 June, we let the plants grow in the open air so that they regenerate. On this photograph, taken on 29 June, the asparagus is beginning to emerge from the mounds of earth. Asparagus is a fascinating crop."

Roland Guisnard, warder and farmer, Bellechasse Prison, Sugiez, Fribourg canton, Switzerland

in " Planting patterns ", p. 125