I only harvest once per season and generally, I don’t harvest the whole clump. I’d rather have long-lived plants that get bigger every year, so I tend to plant way more hosta than I need.
Some more pictures because people asked for it
Polyculture of Hosta, Siberian purslane and Hablitzia tamnoides in May (Hablitzia eventually covers most of the wall)
Same polyculture a few weeks earlier. Notice how Siberian purslane covers the ground in early spring and then continues to live underneath the Hosta leaves later on.
Easiest and also most common way for me to eat Hosta is steaming the whole shoots and then turned in a flavorful sauce of some sort. This is how spring shoots are most commonly eaten in East Asia:
Another example, which is basically the same thing, just steaming them in a flavorful liquid like a soup, here a spicy coconut soup with rhubarb, mushrooms, coriander and rice:
A third example. It’s the same theme: Just lightly steam the shoots in a flavorful liquid (I usually use salt, acid, fat and some umami or vegetable stock). Served with other spring shoots (fiddle heads), bladdernut flowers, peas and some cheese.
Over the years, I’ve learned to pick Hosta shoots at the right stage. In the beginning, I harvested when the shoots were totally new and tight (like asparagus), but I’ve found they are much nicer when they open up a little bit.
This is a little bit after the perfect stage (the perfect stage is above in the in-situ photo):
