Ramps, part 1: Wild Delicacies Under the Forest Floor

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."