Wild ramps prized for their flavor
While in Rabun County the other day, I drove to a secluded spot along a mountain road on the edge of the Chattahoochee National Forest to gather a small bunch of wild ramps — or edible wild leeks. But the spot was not as secret as I thought: Someone had beaten me to it.
No matter. I can find some elsewhere.
The ramp is a prized, strong-smelling wild onion native to rich, moist deciduous forests of the Appalachian Mountains. Mountain folk consume ramps with great gusto in several dishes. Gourmet chefs recently began using them as flavoring in culinary specialties.
In Georgia, ramps are found mostly in cool, north-facing, high-elevation coves and small valleys. Ramp Cove in the Tray Mountain area of Towns County is named for its thick patches of ramps.
The plants are growing lushly now in those places and will continue to do so through late May. Ramp leaves began poking out of the ground in late March and now have unfurled into broad oval leaves about 4 to 10 inches long. The leaves grow directly from the bulbs, whose powerful smell is best described as an onion and garlic mix. By June, the leaves will be gone, and the plant, a member of the lily family, will produce flowering stems with greenish-white flowers.
But right now, with their leaves bright green, the young ramps are prized by many mountain folks, who comb the coves and gather the plants' leaves and bulbs by the bushel to use as flavoring — or simply to be fried and eaten as a standalone dish.
Since ramps were the first edible wild greens to appear in spring, mountain people welcomed them as a tonic after months of dried or salted foods. Many towns in the southern Appalachians hold ramp festivals each spring — such as the 24th Ramp Festival being held today in Flag Pond, Tenn., near Knoxville. Next weekend, at the Ramp Festival in Whitetop, Va., the highlight will be a ramp eating contest.
The large amounts of ramps consumed at the festivals are harvested mostly from the wild in private and public forests. Also, some celebrity chefs have began promoting wild ramps as a gourmet food, and some upscale restaurants have begun serving them.
This has kindled a growing demand for ramps. As a result, native populations of the plant are dwindling in several areas. In response, Great Smoky Mountains National Park banned the harvesting of ramps in 2002. In 2006, the U.S. Forest Service put new rules into effect limiting where groups of people can pick ramps for festivals and placing other restrictions on harvesting.
Hopefully, the regulations will help ensure lush growths of ramps for many springs to come.
In the sky
Watch the moon "shrink" during the coming week — from full moon tonight to last quarter by the end of the week, says David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. Venus shines very brightly low in the east in the predawn sky. Mars also is low in the east at the same time. Jupiter rises out of the east at midnight. Saturn rises out of the east before sunset.
