I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. The weather around here was unbelievable, really. We had planned to spend the whole weekend hiking, but took Saturday off to relax on a blanket in the park, marveling over the unprecedented April warmth.
Do you know what these are?
On Friday at Oka (a lovely National park, in a village which is known in Canada as the site of the Oka Crisis) I spotted a few little spots of green among the brown leaves on the forest floor. I immediately knew what they were, and went closer for a better look. They were ramps! It was so exciting to find edible (and delicious) plants growing when I hadn’t even been looking for them. There was only one problem. That being that ramps are on the endangered list in Quebec, so we are supposed to leave them alone.
Lots of wild, onion-y goodness.
So, the very anti-climatic end to this story is that despite my joy at finding these lovely wild ramps, I decided to leave them in the forest where they were. Well, except for the few that I picked and tried raw, straight from the soil. They had a good, strong allium taste, so I was lucky enough to go on tasting them for the next hour or two (aka onion/garlic breath, big time).
We considered picking a few more to put on the banh mi’s we had packed for lunch, but decided against it in the end. I consoled myself about leaving the ramps with the thought that we still had a few hours of walking ahead of us, so they likely would have been pretty wilted and heat-weary by the time we got them home anyway.
Here’s a little more information on ramps: at The Forager Press, and The Atlantic.
And if you’d like to read about the Oka Crisis of 1990, the link will take you to the Wiki article.
So, are you much of a forager? Have you tried ramps? If so, did you buy them or pick them yourself?
love,
meg
Update– I watched an excellent documentary on the Oka Crisis, by Alanis Obomsawin. The entire film is available to watch at the NFB site here: Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance.
Tags: foraging, spring, vegetables
Hey Meaghan,
Do you have space for a garden? Because you can buy ramps seeds and starts by mail… or I can split my stash: I noticed that you live in Montreal, so if you have a bit of soil in the shade, I would be happy to pot some up for you.
My wild garlic is nowhere near as big as the one in Oka, but I keep checking it daily. Ramps are not a protected species in France, so I used to gorge on them during their short season. I love foraging, it’s so much fun.
-d
Hi Dahlia,
I live in an apartment on the second floor, so we have no yard whatsoever.
What a kind offer! I don’t have access to any real garden space, so unfortunately I cannot grow ramps at my place, unless they grow well potted
I miss having a garden, and look forward to living in a place with more food-growing capabilities at some point in the near future.
So, for now I’ll have to stick with sprouting, market-shopping and foraging.
If you can’t find any, you can always buy some.
http://www.bloggingwv.com/wild-ramps-for-sale/ is where I buy mine. I love ramps, and look forward to them every spring. I wish the season was longer!
Oh well, keep me posted; when you will have a garden of your own, I will bring you some ramps. In the meantime, there is a wild foods’ guy at Jean-Talon market who is a reliable source for wild garlic.