Ramps - Tumblr Posts
Wild Leek - Allium Tricoccum
Spring in American forests brings a lot of strange spring ephemerals, ramps are one of those early sprouting understory plants. Ramps are a species of wild garlic, growing from bulbs in dense clusters. Leaves are light green with purplish tints on the lower stem. Typically the presence of ramps (in America) determine whether a forest has seen little disturbance in the past century, older forests are the only location to really find a decent population. I specify a difference in the American species since A. ursinum the European species is known for taking over forests in England and Scandinavia.
As seen in the image above, ramps grow rather densely in large numbers, but A. tricoccum is very sensitive to disturbance. If you do forage ramps, do not harvest the bulb and only take one leaf per plant (and please try to use invasive garlic mustard as a more plentiful substitute which is visible in this image). If you're interested in propagating this species know that the leaves and the flowers are not present at the same time, you'll have to memorize a location and spread any seeds in alluvial moist gentle slopes (areas in forests that water will flow over but not remain). Flowers have long stalked umbels (semi-circular in form) with white flowers, similar to garden alliums.
Making Ramp Pesto:
I promised a recipe and now here it is. I learned this when harvesting the European ramps in risskov when I lived in denmark. Basically you'll need a food processor and olive oil.
1 Bunch of Ramp Leaves (you don't need a lot)
1/4 cup of olive oil
One quarter slice worth of lemon juice
3/4 cup of walnuts (foragers can use hickory if you saved some from before winter)
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper
Grind it up and you're ready for some strong pesto for some pasta. Feel free to use more walnuts and olive oil as necessary, ramps are very strong and more will not really affect the flavor.
Boo Johnson on Flickr.
