It’s spring, and nature is sharing its early bounty of wild onions, garlic, and ramps. I forage a few spots for our own use, and the local farmers markets will be offering them soon.
Regionally, there are different names for the wild onion (Allium canadense), wild or field garlic (Allium vineale), and ramps or wild leeks (Allium tricoccum), but they all share pungent levels of oniony-garlicky flavor. But that’s only part of the charm.
Wild garlic also goes by a bunch of really fun names. Here are just a few: bear’s garlic (they love it!), gypsy’s onions, ramsons, buckrams, devil’s garlic, and stinking Jenny. Yes, stinking Jenny!
Two of the first edible plants to show themselves in early spring are the wild garlic plant and the wild onion plant. At a quick glance, they look the same. They both grow in clumps with grass-like leaves, and when picked, have an onion-like smell. Should you choose to forage, know that there is a poisonous look-a-like plant called the death camas. It does not have the oniony odor associated with both wild onion and garlic. First time foragers should go with an old hand who knows where to safely find the real thing.
The star of the spring edibles is ramps, so much revered that there are festivals celebrating their brief appearance. As a matter of fact, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee has its annual Rainbow and Ramps Festival this Saturday, March 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Birdtown Gym. It’s a great opportunity to share a meal featuring ramps.
I remember hearing my father tell the story of students being asked not to attend the one room schoolhouse for a few days after eating ramps. “Ramp repellant” apparently is a real thing after consuming large amounts of this celebrated spring vegetable. There is a lot of discussion regarding their tastiness – either you love them or hate them. I researched Vol. 2 of the Foxfire books and one gentleman was quoted as saying, “They’s not for ladies or those who court them.”
Some suggestions for using any of these plants include adding to fried or scrambled eggs, or tuna fish for sandwiches. They also make a great addition to salads when finely chopped, as well as mixing with mayonnaise to serve with trout. Add to mashed potatoes, or if you are feeling adventurous, try Ramp Pesto Spaghetti. Here’s the recipe.
Ramp Pesto Spaghetti
- 4 ounces of ramps, greens separated
- Kosher salt
- 12 ounces spaghetti
- ¼ cup toasted walnuts
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons grated Pecorino cheese, plus more for serving
- Lemon wedges, optional
Blanch ramp greens in a large pot of boiling salted water until wilted, about 10 seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer greens to a bowl of ice water. Drain and squeeze out liquid. Bring same water in pot to a boil again and cook spaghetti, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking liquid. Meanwhile, coarsely chop ramp bulbs and stalks (save or pickle the rest, if desired) and walnuts in a food processor. Add ramp greens, olive oil, and 2 tablespoons of Pecorino. Process to a coarse paste. Season with salt. Toss spaghetti and ½ cup cooking liquid with pesto, adding more cooking liquid as needed until pesto coats pasta. Serve topped with more Pecorino and with lemon wedges. Serves four.
This is just one of many recipes that are available using ramps. These wild vegetables can be pickled, fried, and made into soup, and are highly sought after by chefs during their very brief spring appearance.
Not only are they delicious to eat, but they are also nutritious too. Wild garlic, onions, and ramps appear to have a host of healthy properties and have long been used in Europe and Asia as a homeopathic remedy for everything from toothaches to bloating to the flu.
“Wild garlic has been known in folk medicine for its health-promoting and disease-preventing properties associated with minerals (Fe, P, Na, Cu), vitamins (A, C), dietary fibers and sulphur-containing and phenolic compounds,” states one recent scientific study that analyzed the health benefits of adding wild garlic to pasta dishes.The findings yielded science-backed permission to eat as much wild garlic with spaghetti as you’d like: “Enrichment with wild garlic may provide higher functional potential to pasta by increasing the content of phenolics, flavonoids and minerals as well as by improving its antioxidant activity.”
While there isn’t a ton of other research to back up many of the anecdotal health claims of wild garlic specifically, alliums in general have been studied extensively, so it’s safe to assume that wild garlic offers many of the same benefits. The bioactive compounds in alliums mainly include organosulfur compounds, polyphenols, dietary fibers, and saponins, a recent study confirms. Flavonoids, particularly flavonols from alliums, have been demonstrated to have antioxidant, anticancer, hypolipidemic, anti-diabetic, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and antimicrobial activities.
Enjoy our brief but healthy ramp season.