The History of Asparagus — The Vegetable America Traded for Cocaine

From pharaohs and Roman emperors to Versailles, Washington canneries, Peruvian desert farms, and a cocaine bust in Lima… this is the bizarre true history of asparagus.

In this episode of Crumb Lore, we trace how one ancient vegetable became the center of a wildly unexpected chain of events: royal obsession, global trade, the U.S. War on Drugs, the collapse of American asparagus farming, aquifer depletion in Peru, and a smuggling network hidden in canned asparagus shipments.