WEST HAMLIN, W.Va. -- Driving down a winding country lane to Ware Farm, I had a picture in my mind of a lush, green field, with asparagus popping up in beautiful rows.

I took the final sharp turn and crossed the Mud River, and I started looking for the plots of greenery.

Ray Ferguson, chief asparagus grower, met me and pointed to an ugly, brown, barren-looking spot down the gravel road.

It didn't look like anything was growing in the field that Ray pointed to with such pride.

Ray and his son, Jared, showed me what I originally couldn't see -- slender, purplish green stalks popping up in rows. They were like little gems coming out of the dirt.

"We've been selling from this field for nine years," Ray said, walking between the rows of tender asparagus. It took a couple of years for the plants to be mature enough to produce enough to sell, but now they have 3 acres that will produce 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of produce this summer.

"We can pick for two months this summer," Ray said. He told me the lush plants I envisioned come later, after the crops have been picked, and the plants are left to grow "ferns."

Ware Farm, named for Ray's wife's family, wasn't always growing asparagus to sell.

"We used to raise a lot of tobacco, but I began to see the writing on the wall years ago," Ray said. "Grandma and Grandpa, about 20 years ago, had a one row of asparagus, and we all ate off of it. When that row died, I saw what [prices] they were selling for in the store, and I saw a niche where somebody could do something.

"We started off on a half-acre," Ray said, "and we have 3 acres now."

The plants produce crops for 25 to 30 years, Ray said. Next year, he's adding another acre; this one will be the "Purple Passion" variety.

Jared said the crop isn't affected by a lack of rain in West Virginia's hot summers.

"The roots go so deep, drought doesn't hurt it," Jared explained.

"Once it's mature," Ray added. The young plants have to be nurtured, and Ray and Jared have been careful to treat the "crowns" of the plants with a bit of TLC -- in the first season, stalks can only be picked for one week and then they are left to grow until fall. In the next season there are two weeks of picking, doubling each summer. The crown will continue to grow in the ground after the stalks are picked.

Ray hires young men from the area to pick the asparagus.

"That's what this is all about -- that's as important as the asparagus," Ray said. The wiry, strong farmer showed a soft side when he spoke fondly of the young men who he's "raised" along with the asparagus.

Jared, a junior forestry major at Glenville State College, has been working on the family farm for as long as he can remember. The soft-spoken young man shows an obvious admiration and affection for his father, and Ray glows with pride when he looks at his son and talks about his successes.

Jared said they can pick an asparagus field for an hour, and then go back and pick that same field again.

"If the conditions are right, it will grow an inch in an hour," Jared said.

The boys take 2 1/2-gallon buckets down the rows, picking the long green stems by hand. The crops are taken to a cooled building, spread on a long metal table, and sorted into four grades: jumbo, large, medium and small.

"They all sell for the same price," Ray said. "It just depends on how you're going to cook them. If you're putting them on the grill, you want the big, jumbo ones. In a different recipe, you'll want the small."

The stalks are rubber-banded into 1-pound bundles and set upright in water in a 38-degree refrigerated room.

"Freshness is the key to asparagus," Ray said. He recalls eating the fresh asparagus from his grandmother's garden, and then eating some from the grocery store. There was no comparison.

"The longer it sits, the woodier it gets."

Do they have trouble with deer eating the crops?

"We have more problems with the wild turkeys," Ray said. "They come in and take the tips right off."

How did Ray, a construction worker by trade, learn to grow asparagus? He credits retired Cabell County Extension Agent John Marra, who directed him to an agriculture professor at the University of Kentucky. There he learned what conditions were best for growing the crop, including soil pH, weed and insect control.

He points to the vegetation (aka weeds) growing around the stalks of asparagus.

"We leave some of that there, because it attracts spiders. The spiders keep the other bugs out."

Ray loves the cycle of nature, pointing to his 20 beehives on the hill behind his house. "If it weren't for my bees, I wouldn't have any of this."

Jared put in dozens of tiny Christmas trees on a mountain behind the house, knowing they will be a profitable crop in a few years. Ray grows shiitake mushrooms, and collects morels, too.

The family grows strawberries in an old tobacco water bed -- a place designed to give the tobacco seedlings the necessary amount of water before being transplanted into a regular bed. Filled with mulch, it's producing 100-plus quarts of strawberries now.

Ray's asparagus has a great résumé. He used to sell 300 pounds a week to The Greenbrier, but the drive made it cost-prohibitive. His asparagus is served at Huntington Prime, Jewel City Seafood, and is sold through Forth Food Fair in Huntington and The Purple Onion at the Capitol Market in Charleston.

"Allan Hathaway has been a godsend to me," Ray said. Hathaway owns The Purple Onion, and he's helped get Ray's products from farm to market. The Purple Onion sells Ray's strawberries and mushrooms as well as the asparagus.

"I call it a commitment crop," Ray said of his asparagus with a laugh. "I know marriages that don't have the commitment I have to these plants."

Reach Sara Busse at sara.bu...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1249.