Bluebells and Ramps and a Spring Galette

I went to check on the bluebells behind the house. (I have visions of a bluebell wood, such as we saw in England but it's not there yet.)

Still, their numbers are increasing. And so are the ramps in my little ramp patch. 

The ramp patch is the result of my buying and planting freshly harvested ramps. I only harvest a few blades from my ramps, rather than the whole pungent plant.
                                                                     

But they added a garlicky whang to the asparagus and mushroom galette that was our supper.

                                                                  

Bluebells and Ramps

 

Breaking News: The Rapture is Tomorrow! Again!

How many times does that make that some self-appointed prophet has proclaimed The Rapture? Or Armageddon or The Apocalypse or (fill in the blanks.)

Some people will believe anything. Witness the current state of the race for president. I think I'm actually more appalled at the number of Americans who choose to believe the Orange Blowhard (oops, I'm disqualifying myself from future juries involving him) than by the Blowhard himself.

I'd seen the "news" of the impending Rapture on FB but wanted to check the source. The first thing that popped up was Fox "News."

Surprise, surprise. When the history of the past decade is written (always assuming there will still be people capable of writing history,) Fox News will bear much of the blame for the Orange One's rise to power. Fox and Russian disinformation campaigns--though perhaps I repeat myself. They may well be one and the same.

Meanwhile, in other news, the bluebells are blooming, and my little patch of ramps is up. Years ago, I bought a bundle of freshly dug ramps and planted them. Now they are thriving and spreading. 

If I thought we were looking at End Times, I'd go on and pull up every last one and have a real ramp feast--kind of the fundamentalist approach to environmental issues--use it all up with no thought for the future because this world is not our home.

But I don't and I won't. I will continue to harvest only the occasional leaf, conserving the patch so it can increase. This world is my home.

 

Pasta alla Pancetta, 'shrooms, and Ramps

My  little ramp patch is putting forth so I harvested a very few leaves. I'd love to use the bulbs too--but then there'd be fewer ramps next year. When I find fresh ramps for sale, I buy them and eat a few and plant the rest--which is why I have a ramp patch in the first place. Someday someone may be able to harvest more freely here . . .

But not yet. I'd like to see them all crowded before I remove any. So just a few leaves went into last night's supper.

I sautéed diced pancetta with garlic to ramp up, as it were, the flavor of the ramps. Then some sliced mushrooms, a bit of butter, and the julienned ramp leaves, along with a grind or two of salt.

I used whole wheat spaghetti--which has come a very long way from the early cardboard-flavored versions, and stirred in the pancetta/mushroom/ramp mixture, along with a bit more butter and some grated parmesan. It was tasty, quick, and easy.  If you don't have ramps, just use more garlic.  A green salad on the side along with some red wine . . . yeah, boy!

 

Cream of Spring Soup

I picked nettles on Tuesday, tamed them with boiling water, and saved them--and the drained off water which I call nettle tea and enjoy hot. 

Then yesterday I picked a few ramp leaves from my little patch and made a soup -- nettle greens and chicken broth and a leftover baked potato whirred in the food processor, diced onions and garlic sauteed in butter, then flour added to make a roux, and more chicken broth  to make a cream sauce. 

Combined with the processed nettles, thinly sliced ramp leaves, some cream, and salt and pepper to taste, it made a lovely soup.

Ramping It Up

Ramps are available now in a few local stores and Claui gave us a bunch.  Their roots were attached and, though the foliage had wilted, an overnight soak and they perked right up.

I chopped up some to sauté in butter with some shitake (John picked a basketful yesterday.)  The tasty result will be added to rice for a side dish at dinner.

But the rest went in the ground to add to the little ramp patch I've been cultivating behind our house.

I add to it most springs and the ramps are doing well -- though only a few have reached enough maturity to multiply. In the wild, the bulbs double and redouble till the ground is a mat of the green blades.

If we have ramps growing wild on our property, they're probably on the steep, mostly inaccessible, slopes. So this little nearby patch, gives me a great deal of pleasure. Who knows, someday, it may become prolific enough to actually harvest more than a careful few leaves.

Ramps!

A local store had fresh-dug ramps yesterday and I got some to add to the little ramp patch I've been cultivating and some to eat. Ramps are a kind of wild garlic and when we first learned about them, our informants made it sound as though they were for dare-devils only. We were assured that if you ate ramps, you'd smell of them for weeks, that your sweat would smell like ramps, and that ramp-eaters became outcasts from society. 

As it happens, we already eat enough garlic to dissuade a pack of vampires so ramps aren't intimidating in the least. But they are a lovely spring tradition and as we have no ramps in our woods -- at least none that are accessible -- over the years I've been buying them and planting them, in hopes of someday having enough for a nice harvest.

When I told the lady at the store that I was going to plant them, she said that I could cut off the top for eating and just plant the root.  I took her advice -- for two-thirds of my purchase. The rest I planted whole, wanting to see which works best.

Then I had to decide how to cook the ramps. It's traditional to fry them up with bacon and eggs but I had another idea. I cooked a pot of quinoa in chicken broth and, while it was simmering, sautéed the cut up ramps in butter, adding a bit of thin sliced ham and some cooked asparagus from a previous meal. 

Mushrooms, especially morels, would have been a nice addition, but I didn't have any.

I stirred the ramp mixture into the quinoa and in the empty pan, lightly fried a couple of eggs.  The quinoa mixture went into two bowls and was topped with an egg, red pepper flakes, and some grated aged parmesan. 

It was really good. And if it makes us society outcasts for a week, it was worth it.

If this sounds like something you'd like but there are no ramps where you live, I think you could achieve a similar effect with leeks and garlic.