Our local farmer's market just opened up and the one thing I had on my list to buy was fresh asparagus. It was quite expensive (about $6 a pound), but I was willing to spend that much to see if the taste was really that much better. The guy told me the asparagus had just been picked the night before.
I simply trimmed the asparagus and cooked them in a little bit of bacon grease I had left over from the weekend. I let it sautee until it was a little black but still tender.
This is one of my favorite ways to cook asparagus and my family loves it. I honestly don't know if there was a huge difference in flavor because it was super fresh, but I do feel better knowing that it hadn't traveled hundreds of miles to get to my plate. The fact that I helped a local farmer made it special, too.