Ramps

We were able to try something new today. It is something we had never heard of before, which is found wild and in abundance in the spring in Ohio. It's called a ramp. This herb is similar to a leek, and is sometimes called wild garlic. It smells like an onion, and has a flavor all its own. It is quite strong, and if you like garlic is quite delicious. 

    Henry learned of its existence through a friend. Shortly after learning about it he went to check on our beehives which are kept at another friend's property (our neighbors in the suburbs aren't particularly welcoming to beehives), and he discovered that the plant was covering a substantial amount of their forest floor. After gaining permission to pick the ramps we decided to go out as a family and do just that. 

Here is our cute little 2 year old helping daddy with the harvest. 

After bringing the ramps home we cleaned them up, and each tried one raw. The whole plant is edible including the leaves, once the base is trimmed. It looks a lot like a scallion. 

They have a very strong flavor, the white end is more mild than the leaves which have a nice spicy kick to them. After trying them raw we decided to sauté the rest in some butter. 

They turned out great. The flavor was a little more mild after cooking, and with a touch of salt they were delicious. The leaves took on an almost spinach flavor, the spice and garlic were well combined with a hint of leek. We use a lot of onion and garlic in our cooking, so this herb had us thinking of many different ways we could use it. 

It was fun to learn about the local plants in our area. We are contemplating trying to grow ramps in the future, if we can figure out how. For now we will have to be limited to finding them in the spring when they are in season.