By Stephen Smoot
Generations ago, when forests covered all of eastern North America, American Indians and frontiersmen alike scoured the land every spring to find them. They used them for medicine, but also added them to foods for a rush of fresh flavor after a winter of salted meats and dried staples.
Now, every celebrity chef from Gordon Ramsay to Anne Burrell sings their praises and uses them to create robust food challenges on competition programs.
The once humble ramp has emerged from the Appalachian hills to take its place as one of America’s great ingredients.
Cherokee Indians created a long list of uses for ramps over the centuries. They used ramps to create medicinal tonics to treat coughs and colds and also used them as an essential ingredient for bee stings salves. Historian John Alexander Williams wrote that “ramps, or wild leeks, wild vegetables that appear in the forest every spring, often poked their pungent leaves up through the snow. They have a bad odor when cooked, but are otherwise wholesome.”
Williams added that “children and everyone else looked forward to their coming and they have become a traditional Appalachian food.” Ramps have a flavor that ranges somewhere between an onion and garlic, with a more pungent smell and stronger taste than either.
They remain an essential part of traditional springtime fare. Many organizations, such as the Farm Club of Jones Run, use ramps as a centerpiece of fundraiser dinners that also serve as a time for post winter socializing and family fun.
Carol Minnix, who is associated with the Farm Club, says that ramp dinners remain popular because “not many people want to take the time to forage in the woods to find them, dig them, clean and cook them, and have your spouse and children yelling about the smell!”
Minnix added that for generations past, “they provided a welcome change after a winter of eating dried and salt cured foods back in the days before grocery stores.”
Now, as a recent article in Vox.com suggests, the rising popularity of ramps creates “an annual frenzy” of the “food-obsessed on the East Coast.”
And ramps have earned such dedication. Minnix praised their versatility, saying “they can be pickled or frozen.” Their benefits include being “loaded with vitamins and minerals, and have medicinal properties that are varied, including tonics and poultices.”
Traditionally, West Virginians enjoy them “raw, alone or layered on a favorite sandwich,” Minnix also suggests that those who want to try ramps “fry them with potatoes, a side of scrambled eggs, and some bacon and you have the classic ramp breakfast.” She says that ramps can be used in the same ways as other onions.
Another Minnix household recipe brings together “a spice blend of oregano, Italian seasoning, any of your favorite spices. Bring a pot of water to a boil with your spice blend.” Boil the ramps until a knife can be inserted easily into the bulb, much like when boiling potatoes. “Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, throw on some bacon grease, and enjoy.”
Deonna Crowe is a Harrison County chef who specializes in wild food cooking events and has 600 cookbooks. “Anything that creeps, crawls, slithers, and slides, I cook it.” Crowe said “I love a ramp dinner. I love to put them in a burger.” She also shared that she loves ramp chili and described how she adds ramp tops to fresh spinach and browns them.
Other areas have ramps, but often under different local names. “My son lives in Philadelphia,” she said, adding that he claimed to not know what a ramp was. When Crowe visited one spring, she saw a large patch of ramps in a neighbor’s yard. “We call them wild leeks up here.”
Crowe says that the recent explosion in popularity comes from the fact that “people are wanting to try new things. People realize there’s something that they can get out in the woods. They want to try it.”
First-time foragers need to take special care. Some plants look like ramps and grow in the same areas, but are poisonous to humans. Easting a false hellebore, for example, can bring on severe symptoms within 30 minutes, such as severe nausea and vomiting, slowed breathing, weakness, numbness, tingling, and drooling.” Experts urge those who may think they have consumed a false hellebore to go to the emergency room immediately.
Crowe suggests that those who go ramp foraging for the first time bring someone along who can pick out ramps from other vegetation. She adds that only ramps will have that strong onion and garlicky smell, saying “when you pull that ramp up, you know what you’ve got.”
Popularity brings higher prices, which encourages heavier foraging. The United States Forest Service, which oversees the Monongahela and George Washington National Forests in West Virginia, said in a release earlier this year “while collecting ramps for personal use is permitted on forest land within established limits, commercial harvesting of ramps in the forest is prohibited.”
The USFS limits the amount considered for personal use to “two gallons per person at any one time, about the amount that fits in a typical grocery bag.”
Crowe added that those foraging for commercial or personal use should take care to not harvest every plant in a patch, but to leave some untouched. This will ensure that the patch remains in place from one year to the next. Additionally, she says “don’t throw away the roots.” Cutting the bottom off and returning them to the ground will bring back more plants next year. Those with sufficient ground could create their own patch by doing so, but Crowe urges that the plants be allowed to develop for a year before trying to harvest.
The Farm Club of Jones Run’s ramp dinner will run from 11 AM to 3 PM at the Lumberport Community Center on April 20th. They are offering a variety of meals with ramps included at a price of $12 for take away or eat in.