Have you ever heard of the wild onion called a Ramp?
I’m always so excited to hear about wild edible plants in my area. Foraging for wild and natural food is very interesting to me and it doesn’t take much convincing to get me outside looking for a new treasure.
I am not sure why it took me so long to find out about these neat onions., but I’m sure glad we heard about them and were able to find some!
Where to find them:
From what I read, they are located in North America and grow in rich damp soil. They can be seen in clusters with 2-6 bulbs and have long green leaves about a foot in length. The small bulbs are white to purple in color with a good amount of roots.
When we found the clusters of ramps, we tried to pull them out, but they were stuck and we didn’t want to break off the bulbs. However, we were able to dig around them and gently lift the cluster out. Then we all we had to do was shake off the soil and bring them home. So they were still pretty simple to harvest.
Eating them:
The exciting part is you can eat every part of this plant! Similar to green onions, leeks, and garlic, they taste like a sweet and spicy mix. My kids ate them raw and I also sautéed them with a little olive oil and salt then added them into our meals. I actually used them to replace both the green onion and garlic for our dinner.
If you have some in your area don’t be afraid to try them out! (Always check to make sure you get the right plants.)
According to Wikipedia, there are folklores and festivals all about these guys.
Also, YouTube is full of culinary videos, information, and collecting clips if your interested.
Thanks for reading and have fun hunting!
