While maple syrup is the first edible we get off our land each new year it is the appearance of wild ramps in the woods that signals the beginning of new harvests for our homestead.
Ramps (Allium tricoccum)
are known by many names but all of them mean something delicious.
During our first spring, we were lucky enough to discover that the upper
part of the Windy Apple Farms woods is full of ramps.
Kind
of like an onion, kind of like garlic, these spicy sweet bulbs are the
first green thing to appear in the woods each spring. We have been
careful to harvest only a few bulbs from each patch to sustain the
population. The recommendations seem to be to only harvest around 5% of
each patch, we are well under that percentage now and have plenty of
ramps to enjoy. Our favorite recipes are ramps with pasta and cream and
ramp biscuits.
We
have also been experimenting with transplanting a few bulbs and
gathering seeds to develop new ramp patches to harvest into the future.
