RAMPS!

[Buckskinner]

Swung by my secret ramp spot this morning which coincidentally is on public hunting grounds that is heavily hunted for turkey, but everyone walks right by the ramps...  There are literally thousands of ramps in this area, by far the best spot that I know of.   Looking forward to smoked venison shoulder with sauteed leaks and potato ramps soup tonight!

[JW_Halverson]

Dang!!! That's awesome!

That little seafood market had ramps and fiddlehead ferns again this spring. Get this...$30/lb!  Again, I only wish I had them growing them here!

[Buckskinner]

Wow, that's crazy!  I'm glad nobody has figured out my spot, it's literally 50 feet from a well-traveled county road.  I literally hide behind trees when cars go by... I was going to transplant some from there to our property as there is some similar habitat but it's too late in the season.  They are a treat but no way I'd pay anywhere near that for them.

[Gimlis Ghost]

I come from a ramp rich state (West Virginia) and have only eaten them once. I was always told that if you ate ramps you could not go to school cause they would make you go home. The smell will leak out of your pores and smell like garlic for weeks. The stories abound in WV but I was on a turkey hunt and another hunter invited me to eat scrambled eggs with bacon bits,potatoes and ramps. It was delicious but that was the only time I ever ate them.

Sounds good. Been awhile since I took mucheffort with morning eggs but I used to like scrambling eggs in butter with bacon, vidalia onion, garlic salt and shredded sharp cheddar.

Never seen Ramps locally, but I'll look around for them.

PS
Since garlic is a well known anti-parasitic food, most dewormers for dogs are simply garlic capsules, I wonder if Ramps have the same qualities?

[WhistlingBadger]

No ramps around here.  I've heard that they make a person rather, um, fragrant.  We do have wild onions that are delicious.  We also have death camas which grows in the same habitats.  Never eat a wild onion that doesn't smell like onions!

[Buckskinner]

Ramps make you no more fragrant than if you eat onions or garlic, imo.  I made some with leftover smoked venison shoulder and eggs this morning, delicious.

You do need to watch out for lily of the valley when picking ramps as the leaves look similar, but no issue if you're taking the whole plant as the lily does not have an onion bulb nor does it smell like onion/garlic!  Some people just pick the leaves of ramp's so plant keeps producing, where I get them there are plenty so I take the whole deal...

[boxerboxer]

I know this is an old thread but it's about to be ramp season again so I'm bumping it. My #1 favorite thing to make with ramps is compound butter. It's incredible on a steak or some fresh baked bread. Here's a simple recipe: https://leitesculinaria.com/110774/recipes-ramp-butter.html.

Ramps grow all over the eastern US so you might even have close by.

[Eric Krewson]

I hunted a place that was covered up with ramps, I never thought of transplanting some to my place. The landowner was a peculiar guy, a business genius but pretty stupid on day-to-day stuff. I kept up his land for 12 years with my tractor and chainsaw, he let me invite a couple of guys to hunt the place. One of the guys turned out to be an unethical hunter and I revoked his hunting rights and told the land owner why. The guy took any shot he saw, distance, brush in the way it didn't matter. He wounded and lost 8 deer, three of the bucks he wounded and lost were 150" + bucks. The land owner got mad at all of us and revoked our hunting rights to his land. I no longer had access to the ramp patch.

This year I decided to order some ramp plants online and plant them on my property, I hope they do well.

[Buckskinner]

How did the transplants go? 

I moved about a dozen plants this spring. It's hard to tell because the greens go dead about now so will have to wait until next spring to see if they take.  I'm going to keep an eye on my spot and harvest some seeds to plant as well.  I've heard you can also cut half inch of bulb above roots and plant that as well.

[Eric Krewson]

Some critter pulled up every one overnight and ate them.

[JW_Halverson]

That's a crying shame. *burp*

[Eric Krewson]

I ordered more ramp plants yesterday; I will put tomato cages around them this year to keep the critters off them until they get established.

[JW_Halverson]

I ordered more ramp plants yesterday; I will put tomato cages around them this year to keep the critters off them until they get established.

Good luck with this new set. This time don't plant 'em where I can find 'em! 

[Eric Krewson]

Last year I planted ramps on my place to see if they would thrive, some critter dug them up and ate every one of the first night.

I tried again today. I planted two spots with cages over them and a dozen or so spots of individual plants widely spaced out to see if they will be eaten like last year's crop.

[Muskyman]

I started reading this thread last night and wondered if any grew around me and found they do grow in Ohio. Never knew about ramps but I have done mushrooms and stuff. I live basically surrounded by woods. I started looking around the edge of the woods along the yard and found some of these. I’m guessing it’s a ramp?