If you have never had ramps it may be easier to describe what they don’t taste like then how they do:   savory like garlic but without the spicy bite, springiness of a green onion (scallion) but much more pungent in taste and onion-y like a leek but not bitter.  Smelling ramps in the air of my home right now I think food writer Jane Snow got it right, “like fried green onions with a dash of funky feet”.

Ramps grow wild in the shade of an undistributed forest and that is often how they are harvested.  They are native to the eastern seaboard of North America, growing in cooler mountain areas of Georgia and the Carolina’s and the warmer areas of the far north of the Maritimes in Canada.   You can find them in the Union Square Market this time every year for about 3-4 weeks.  We are just at the tail end of the season now.   All but the stringy roots are edible, from the sweet white bulb, to the more bitter red stem and then on through the leaves.  Wash well, especially if you are eating the leaves, as small critters like slugs can crawl deep into the folds (extra protein?).

Use the bulb and the red stem similar to the way you would use garlic and scallions.  The leaves can be chopped and added to a salad fresh, or you can cook the leaves like spinach and add them to an omelet or perhaps a soup.    Although you can compare ramps to garlic, scallion and leek, they are distinct in there own right and certainly a umami treat this time of year.

My favorite way to enjoy ramps:

Ramp Omelet (makes two)

-5-6 Whole wild ramps

-Half a medium tomato- diced

-6 eggs (2 yolks removed), I recommend Norwich organic eggs which are pasture raised , Union Square on Fridays

-Mild fresh Goat Cheese, I recommend LynnHaven, Union Square on Wednesdays

-Sea Salt and Freshly ground pepper

Wash the ramps well, remove root from the bulb and finely chop the bulb and thick part of the stem.  Bring a 12″ cast iron pan to medium heat, add a table spoon of Olive Oil and add chopped ramp bulb and stems immediately to keep the olive oil from smoking.  Saute until slightly translucent, add the julienne ramp leaves and tomatoes until wilted.  Remove ramps and tomatoes from the pan and salt lightly.   Take the six eggs and add two to three table spoons of cold water, beat lightly for 10-15 seconds add cooked ramps and tomatoes.  Re-oil the pan and add half of the omelet mix to the pan moving the egg with the spatula consistently to get omelet like consistency (this is not an official cooking term!)  Remove from pan, crumble goat cheese over omelet and add freshly ground pepper to taste.  This recipe also work well with thyme, but you may not get the more pure taste of the ramps.

Do you enjoy ramps, please post a comment if you have an experience or recipe to share.  If your feeling more more for dessert, try Nonnie’s Pecan Pie recipe I posted in December.

My complicated set up!  This trunk, located in my studio/office, is my wife’s great grandmother’s original, circa 1920′s.