By Anna Thomas Bates

“Eat your greens!” Parents and nutritionists have been ordering us around for years. Green, leafy vegetables are powerhouses of nutrition, but they have a less than stellar reputation in the taste department.

There are those who have ‘texture issues,’ and crunching on a raw leaf or slurping soft, wilted greens is unappealing. Then there are ‘supertasters,’ who are said to have many, many times the taste buds of us regular folk; the bitter overtone of some greens may be too much for them.

But for the rest of us, bring it on! And maybe with some beautiful cooking, we can entice a few of the above to join us.

Whether you grow greens (and now is the time) or purchase them at a farmers market or grocery store, in season leafy greens are a good buy. You are getting a lot of nutritional bang for your buck.

There are cool, crisp lettuces, exotic Asian greens (think tatsoi), savory spinach, and my all-time favorite: kale.

All of these green goddesses prefer to be grown in cool weather and don’t mind a bit of shade once the temperatures start to soar. Spread some seed in your garden right now, and you will be eating greens in 45 to 60 days. Seed Savers Exchange has some amazing heirloom varieties.

One of my favorite characteristic of greens in the garden is that most of are ‘cut and come again’, meaning you can trim off leaves several times and they will continue to grow. You can replant in late summer for a fall harvest, too.

There are a myriad of ways to enjoy greens, but here are some ideas for my top pick of kale:

• Sauté chopped greens with olive oil, garlic, and a dash of crushed red pepper. When tender, drizzle in some vinegar and enjoy.
• Pick or purchase young leaves. Make your favorite citrus vinaigrette and dress chopped kale for a raw salad. Let sit for at least an hour—the dressing will tenderize the raw kale.
• Chop very fine and add to any complimentary soup or pasta near the end of its cooking time. Cook until bright green and enjoy the extra nutritional punch. Bonus, if chopped finely, people who don’t normally like the texture (or very young children who don’t have all of their chompers) may enjoy it more.
• Wash leaves and cut out ribs. Cut leaves into large chunks. Toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and lay on a lined baking sheet. Bake at 275 degrees for 15-25 minutes, until dry and crisp. Kale chips! (These sell for an outrageous amount at your natural food store.) They are typically a big hit with kids. I also like them crumbled up on omelets or pasta dishes.
• If you have a high-powered blender, a few leaves of kale make a fantastic addition to a smoothie. I especially like kale with banana, kiwi, lemon juice and orange juice.
• Kale is delicious mixed into your favorite whole grain or bean dish. Greens and beans are great friends (and make for one of the most economical healthy dishes ever.)

So eat your greens—with so many varieties and ways to use them, there’s no reason not to.

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By Jamie Lamonde

With this year’s oddly early spring comes an earlier-than-usual ramp season—one that is no less abundant but racing by. After talking to local ramp lover, Bjorn Bergman, I was inspired to make use of these potent forest floor delicacies. So for a gathering we held at our house recently, I decided to make ramp dip. I had never done this before and after doing a little research, I concocted a recipe that is quick and easy—and full of ramp goodness. The dip was well received and evidenced only by the swirl marks of dip left behind by chips that couldn’t quite lick the bowl clean.

Check out my recipe for Creamy Ramp Dip and learn more about ramps by reading Bjorn’s articles “Ramps, part 1: Wild Delicacies Under the Forest Floor” and "Ramps, part 2: Sustainable Ramp Harvesting." Be sure to try his recipes for Bacon & Ramp Skillet Cornbread and Wisconsin Ramp Pesto as well.

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Creamy Ramp Dip

Make no mistake: This ramp dip packs some serious onion-filled punch. It’s classic ramp “bite” is delicious on crackers and chips. And it’s a stellar topping for burritos.

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By Eugenia Bone

Editor’s Note: Eugenia Bone is the author of Mycophilia: Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms, which explores the biology and culture of mycology and mycologists. If you've never eaten morels before, Eugenia cautions, “Keep in mind that all raw mushrooms are indigestible and some edible mushrooms are poisonous when eaten raw. Raw morels are poisonous, but cooked they are one of the most delicious foods on the planet.” Please cook all mushrooms thoroughly before eating. Edible Madison thanks Eugenia for her wonderful seasonal Edible Nation contribution, which includes this article as well as “Morel Mania” and a “Chicken with Sherry and Morels” recipe.

Drying Morels
If you should be so lucky as to have more morels than you can eat fresh within a few days of picking, then drying is a good preservation method. Morels must be dried until less than ten percent moisture remains to ensure no microorganism can grow. That’s crisp enough to be easily broken.

If you need to keep the morels in the fridge for a day or two before drying, place them in a loosely closed paper bag in the fridge. The key to staving off spoilage is to keep them cool and dry, with a little ventilation.

There are three techniques: drying in a food dryer, air drying, and oven drying. To prepare the morels for drying, soak the morels in salted water, agitating them occasionally, for a few minutes to loosen any grit that may be captured in the folds of the cap. Do not allow them to soak for long as morels absorb water and will be harder to dry. Allow to drain thoroughly. Split large mushrooms (over 2 ½ inches tall) in half, longitudinally. Do not put the morels in the fridge after they have been washed.

To dry in a food dryer, place the clean morels in the dryer and set at 110 degrees for 8 to 10 hours. To air dry, thread a poultry needle with light culinary twine or dental floss and string clean morels longitudinally. Hang the strings in a dry, ventilated place for about 36 hours.

To dry in an oven, thread each mushroom through the stem with a needle threaded with about 6 inches of dental floss. Tie the mushrooms to a rack in your oven so they hang caps down and are well separated: adjust your oven racks to accommodate two layers of hanging morels, if you have that many. Remove any unused racks. Set the oven at the lowest temperature you can and leave the door partially open. If your oven is too hot (over 140 degrees), you may end up cooking the mushrooms, rather than simply removing all moisture from them. Many ovens cannot be set below 200 degrees, so set the oven to “warm” and leave the oven door partially open. Set the oven to the convection bake feature if you have one, as this will keep the air rotating. The mushrooms will dry in 8 to 10 hours, depending on their size. Properly dried morels should be brittle and broken easily.

Pack dried morels in freezer jars (a gallon of fresh morels will produce a quart of dried) and freeze for up to a year. You can also store them at room temperature in an airtight container but there will be some flavor loss over time. If your morels are not 90 percent moisture-free—if they feel leathery, for example—it’s okay, but then you must freeze them (process on next page).

To rehydrate morels, place them in a bowl of cool water, with a ratio of about 1 part morels to 3 parts water. To keep the morels submerged, fill a baggie with water and place it on top of the morels. After 10 to 20 minutes, they will be soft and return to their fresh shape, ready to cook. The water will be very flavorful. Strain it and use when cooking the morels.

Freezing Morels
For best results, be sure your freezer is cold. Zero degrees will hold the mushrooms for the full time period. If your freezer is warmer, use the foods sooner. Never freeze mushrooms raw as they may develop an off flavor, which you will notice when you cook them. This recipe calls for sautéing the morels in butter before freezing, but you can also boil them whole for about 5 minutes, then freeze as described below.

1 lb. morels, cut in half if small, in rounds if large
2 tablespoons butter

Soak the morels in salted water, agitating them occasionally, for about a few minutes to loosen any grit that may be captured in the folds of the cap.

Melt the butter in a large non-stick skillet over a medium heat. In batches, add the mushrooms, turn the heat down to medium low, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms release their liquid.

To preserve, it is best for the mushrooms to be frozen in their liquid, which protects the tissue of the mushrooms, the same way sugar syrup protects pit fruit when you freeze it.

Dump the mushrooms and their liquid into a bowl, allow to cool, then pack the mushrooms and liquid equally into 2 freezer baggies (about 1 to 2 cups per baggie depending on how much water was in the mushrooms in the first place). Push the air out of the baggies, seal and freeze.

To defrost, place the mushrooms in the refrigerator. They will be ready to cook in about 1 hour. If they are still frosty when you are ready to cook them, it’s okay. You can dump the frozen mushrooms directly into stews and soups.

Precooked frozen mushrooms hold beautifully in the freezer for 9 months to a year.

Canning Morels
I am bending the USDA rules here. Their canned mushroom technique is for white buttons only. I think the reason why they recommend you not can wild mushrooms is because of the risk of mistakenly canning poisonous or otherwise inedible mushrooms. No food safety lab has tested them yet, maybe because they can’t be tested due to variables arising from the fact that they are wild. Since I know exactly what kind of mushrooms I’ve picked, and used very fresh, fine mushrooms that were relative in size to the recommended white button (or smaller), I am confident this recipe is good. But note if you use it for canning morels: they must be equivalent in size to a small or medium white button and they must be pristinely fresh and clean.

1 lb. morel mushrooms
1 teaspoon salt per jar (optional)

Soak the morels in salted water, agitating them occasionally, for about 5 minutes to loosen any grit that may be captured in the folds of the cap.

Place the morels in a pot of boiling water and boil gently for 5 minutes.

Have ready two clean pint jars and band, with new lids that have been simmered in hot water to soften the rubberized flange.

Drain the morels and pack them into clean pint jars. Add salt if you like (the salt is not necessary for safe canning—only for flavor). Cover the morels with boiling water (you can reuse the water you boiled the morels in but there may be some grit in it). Place the lids and screw on the bands fingertip tight.

Process the jars in your pressure canner as per the instructions of your individual canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 45 minutes.

Allow the pressure to come down, and open the lid of the canner away from you to avoid getting hot steam on your face. Remove the jars—they will still be boiling. It’s okay. Let the jars cool on a rack for about 6 hours.

When cool, check the seals and store in a cool dark place. Refrigerate after opening.

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By Bjorn Bergman

Editor’s Note: Read part one to this series on ramps, "Wild Delicacies Under the Forest Floor," by Bjorn Bergman to learn more about this unique wild edible.

Ramps—that wild vegetable tasting of a mix of onions, garlic and leeks—have to be my favorite springtime food. If you have the opportunity to harvest ramps from the wild, please ensure that you are collecting them in a sustainable manner so that they’re available for years to come.

Know the laws and get permission: In Wisconsin, it is illegal to dig ramps on state-owned lands unless you get permission through a general use permit from the property manager. Learn more by calling the Wisconsin DNR at 1-888-936-7463. When harvesting on private land, get permission to do so from the land owner.

Harvest in a sustainable manner: While many argue over what constitutes a healthy ramp population in a forest patch, I think it is best to harvest conservatively. Studies show that only 5 to 10 percent of the ramps in a patch should be harvested each year to ensure their future survival. When I harvest ramps from my friend's patch, I do the following:

1. Harvest only the largest ramps in a clump (ramps grow in clumps of 5 to 10). This assures that the smaller plants are left to mature and go to seed.
2. If there are a number of large ramps in a clump, take—at most—only half the plants. By leaving some older ramps, it guarantees that the clump will recover.
3. When harvesting, keep moving around the patch. This assures that you won’t accidentally harvest too many ramps from one location.

Taking these precautions guarantees that harvesting is done in a sustainable manner.

Use a neighboring-ramp-conscious technique: If digging bulbs, use a soil fork or a small hand trowel and a knife to dig them rather than a large shovel. Shovels disrupt the root system of neighboring ramps and other plants much more than a soil fork or hand trowel and knife will. To dig ramps, loosen the soil with the soil fork or hand trowel and use the knife to cut the ramp roots beneath the bulb. Once you sever the roots, the ramps should pull out. In the place where you dug the ramp, cover the bare soil with leaves. This will reduce the susceptibility of the site to invasion from unwanted species.

When in doubt, harvest only the leaves: Alternatively, you can harvest only the super tasty ramp greens. This practice doesn't kill the ramp or cause soil disruption. If you choose to harvest only the leaves, harvest only one leaf from plants with two or more leaves.

After your harvest, try these delicious ramp recipes by Bjorn Bergman:

Wisconsin Ramp Pesto

Bacon and Ramp Skillet Cornbread

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Rhubarb Syrup

If you love rhubarb, you’ll enjoy this recipe by Anna Thomas Bates from Tallgrass Kitchen. You can use this syrup as-is to flavor drinks and yogurt, or thicken it for drizzling.

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By Anna Thomas Bates, www.TallgrassKitchen.com

Spring is bright and pungent with sharp wild ramps, bitter dandelion greens, grassy asparagus and peppery watercress. Lots of green goodness—I am so grateful to be eating something other than root vegetables.

But as the weather warms and I break out the shorts and iced tea pitcher, my thoughts begin to wander to summer’s sweet bounty—plump, scarlet strawberries, mouth-puckering tart cherries, and ripe, luscious peaches…the fruits of summer.

All this verdant green is fresh and welcome, but I quickly become impatient for the plants and trees to get sexy and produce some fruit. Luckily, there is one rosy, tart harbinger of juicier things to come that can get me through: rhubarb.

In Chez Panisse Fruit, Alice Waters says rhubarb is “the vegetable bridge between the tree fruits of winter and summer.” Technically, rhubarb is not a fruit, but a simple leaf stalk. But what a leaf stalk it is! Ranging from deep carmine to light green with blush at the edges, rhubarb is fondly referred to as the pie plant, so named for its most famous destination.

You’ll find rhubarb at farmers markets, perhaps in the yard of a neighbor who’s lived in her house for a long time, and maybe at the grocery store. If you like it, I encourage you to plant your own. Rhubarb is a perennial, meaning it comes back every year. In Wisconsin, it’s one of the first edible things to poke out of the ground. Scarlet knobs push through the chilled earth, eventually unfurling large elephant ear leaves.

It likes sun and well-drained soil and is planted from a crown that can be purchased at your local greenhouse. Put it on the edge of your garden, or even in a perennial border—it’s rather pretty. It takes about two years before you can begin harvesting, but after that, you will be the proud owner of a rhubarb plant, your very own “vegetable bridge,” that will bring you some tart sweetness when you need it most.

As mentioned before, rhubarb is famous for accompanying strawberries in a pie shell, but that’s not its only gift. Bake it into crisps, cobblers, compotes, chutneys, jam, sauce, and so much more. I use it in muffins and quick breads and even throw it into smoothies. It freezes beautifully.

Try this recipe for a quick rhubarb syrup. Use it to flavor yogurt, smoothies, seltzer, or cocktails. It will add a sweet-tart, lightly vegetal flavor and beautiful color. If you boil it until thick, you can use it on pancakes, waffles, or drizzle it over ice cream. Enjoy!

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Bacon & Ramp Skillet Cornbread

Nothing beats a piping hot slice of cornbread after a day of ramp hunting. Serve warm slathered in local butter and honey.

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Wisconsin Ramp Pesto

Pesto lovers, get ready! If you’ve never had ramp pesto, you are in for a treat! This recipe is love at first bite.

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By Bjorn Bergman

Spring! Ode to Spring! I am singing right now because it is my favorite time of the year to cook with local foods. After going through such a long stretch of winter making soups and roasted veggies with root vegetable after root vegetable, my palate is longing for the first fresh morsel of spring. Specifically it longs for the oniony and garlicky goodness of locally harvested wild ramps.

Ramps (Allium tricoccum), also known as a spring onions, wild leeks and wild garlic, are a wild perennial native to eastern North America. They have a bright white onion-like bulb found beneath the soil that leads to a stunning burgundy stem topped by one, two or three broad, lance-shaped leaves. The entire plant is edible and has a delightfully unique aroma that is best described as a mix of its closest relatives, garlic, onions and leeks, also in the Allium family. As a food, they are extremely versatile and delicious. The blubs can be used in place of any edible Allium, and the leaves can be used like any fresh green. Use your imagination; they will be delicious any way you prepare them.

I was introduced to this springtime perennial ephemeral in early 2009 while working in a friend’s maple forest near Cashton, Wis. I dug them up, brought them home, lightly sautéed the bulbs and stems in butter and added them with the greens to a pizza. One taste and I fell in love.

I have always been fascinated by wild foods, but ramps blow my mind. They encapsulate so many things that I love to eat: garlic, onions and fresh greens. And they grow on their own in the forest, no need to coax and coddle along. They just grow.

While they do grow on their own in the wild, they are a finicky species. In order to flourish, they need rich fertile soil, plenty of moisture, and shade from the harsh rays of sun for much of the year. Lucky for us, Southwestern Wisconsin is well-endowed with rolling hills and valleys populated with lush deciduous forests that provide perfect conditions for the wild ramp.

Within our hills and valleys, they are most often found among maple trees on moisture-rich north-facing slopes beginning in mid- to late-March. At this time, temperatures rise above 32 degrees F during the day and ramps wake from their winter slumber. Their burgundy sprouts poke through the leaf litter, and soon thereafter, their wide dark green leaves unfurl. When full grown, their leaves stand about 8-12 inches above the forest floor.

Ramps remain in a harvestable form for about one month each year, so be sure to take advantage while you can. By mid- to late-May, daytime temperatures climb and the forest's leaf canopy blocks the sun's rays from the forest floor, causing the ramp leaves to yellow and die back. In June, the older plants send up a flower stalk, which matures and blooms above the leafless ramp plant. The flowers eventually mature into seeds that drop to the ground near the mother plant in late summer or early fall, beginning the process all over again. New ramps sprout from the seeds or split off of an existing underground rhizome attached to an already existing plant.

Some readers may not care about all these details—you just want to eat them! I can understand that completely, but in fact, it is more important now than ever to understand the mysterious life cycle of these plants.

Lately, ramps have been garnering quite a bit of fanfare in the media, local restaurants and natural food stores. At first, I was excited by the positive press that the garlicky-oniony wild leek was getting. What a great way to connect people to traditional and wild foods, right? Upon further examination, I became a bit concerned.

When you harvest whole ramps, it is the same as digging up an onion, carrot, beet or any other root vegetable—you are ending the plant's life cycle. When it comes to ramps, this is an even bigger concern due to how slowly they grow. Once a ramp seed hits the soil, it can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months to germinate. Once a seed germinates, it takes 5 to 7 years before it reaches a size that is large enough to harvest. Any time you eat a ramp bulb, you are ingesting a food that took 5 to 7 years to form. Imagine planting your backyard garden and waiting that long to eat anything from it.

Another growing concern is the over harvest of ramps from the wild. With their rising popularity in Quebec, the government began to notice a decline in ramp populations on public lands. Novice harvesters were going into a public patches and removing all the ramps, which leaves no chance to for them to repopulate. Overharvesting became such an issue that in 1995 the government banned anyone from harvesting ramps for commercial sales on public lands. Today this law still stands, although individuals can harvest small amounts of ramps for personal consumption.

Back home in Wisconsin, there have yet to be reports of overharvesting on public land despite their rising stardom. This is largely due to our DNR's strict and appropriate laws protecting native species from harvest on all state-owned land. On these lands, it is illegal to harvest any part of the ramp unless you get permission from the manager of that state property through a general use permit. For this reason, any Wisconsin ramps seen on a restaurant menu or in a grocery store produce case will have been harvested from private land.

As a conscious ramp eater partaking in this wonderful wild edible, it is up to you to make sure it comes from a sustainable source. Ask the restaurant waiter or grocery store’s produce manager about the origins of the ramps before you purchase them. If your questions cannot be answered, sometimes it is best to abstain. Knowing where your ramps come from and ensuring that they are harvested in a sustainable manner assures that this springtime delicacy will be available for years to come in our state.

Now, go out and enjoy responsibly harvested ramps! Tis the season!

There are tons of sources of sustainably harvested ramps in Southwestern Wisconsin. Here are some trusted local sources that I know of:

• Harmony Valley Farm, Viroqua
• Trusted Earth Farm and Forage, Egg Harbor (they harvest from a patch in Lone Rock)
• B&E's Trees, Newry

Check out these delicious ramp recipes by Bjorn Bergman:

Wisconsin Ramp Pesto

Bacon and Ramp Skillet Cornbread

Jump to part two of Bjorn's series on ramps, "Sustainable Ramp Harvesting."

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Cream of Nettle Soup

This easy yet substantial nettle-and-potato cream soup is delicious both hot and cold, and is a perfect way to utilize both nettle stems and leaves. Tender early-season nettles are ideal, but nettles of any degree of maturity should work.

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Event Date: Nov 14

Ken Meter from Crossroads Center will speak about local food as a strategy for economic recovery. FREE. 6:30pm, UW-Madison Soils Building. More info at the FairShare CSA Coalition.

Event Date: Oct 10

John Torgrimson of Seed Savers Exchange will speak about preserving genetic diversity and cultural history in our food supply. FREE. 6:30pm. More info from FairShare CSA Coalition.

Event Date: Jun 20

Topic: Community Connections through Agriculture in the Oneida Nation. FREE. 6:30pm. Visit the FairShare CSA Coalition (formerly MACSAC) website for more info. 

Event Date: May 15

Learn about the rural entrepreneurs we have in the region including those in foods, tourism and services, and manufacturing. Farm & business tours, keynote speaker from Organic Valley. Learn more here.

Event Date: Aug 24 - Aug 26

Learn about wild edibles from experienced foragers. Harvest walks, speakers, potluck banquet, cooking contest and much more. Family friendly! For more info, email Melissa Price. 

Event Date: Apr 21

Join grilled cheese chefs from across the state at the 1st annual WI Grilled Cheese Championship. Iowa County Fairgrounds, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit www.grilledcheesewisconsin.com.

Event Date: May 06

A 4-course dinner celebrating pioneers of the CSA movement and successes of the past 20 years. $50. Reservations: 608-251-2700. More info here.

Event Date: May 02

Discussion on Food, Health & Community with registered dietician, author & "Food Sleuth Radio" host Melinda Hemmelgarn. UW-Madison Soils Bldg., 6:30pm. More details here. 

Event Date: Oct 01

3 course dinner featuring products from local farms. Each course is paired with a local beer. Limited tickets available. 6:00pm, Coopers Tavern