Ramps on the A T

[Ron Haven]

Every year I talk with many north bound hikers who ask me what ramps is and where to find them.They grow along the trail in many places.I have put a close up picture here to help you identify them so click on these links. http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/...?i=20723&c=553

If you will look behind my family you will see them growing in bunches on the bank.Just under the whiteblaze on this tree is many.This is on the AT just north of the Chunky Gal Trail.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/...mageuser=12119

I'm hiking south from Kelly's Knob and just north of Addis Gap.You will see many growing on the side of the trail. http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/...mageuser=12119

[Smile]

YUM! Ramps are terrific fresh, and if you already have hikersmell already - might as well go for it! There are lots of these on the rez at Qualla Boundary too.

Thanks for posting this Ron

[mdgamewarden]

What are ramps?

[Ron Haven]

I hope this will help many of our AT friends to idenify them.Just a note:you can't pull them up the tops just break off.You have to put your hands in front of them,sink your fingers in the dirt about 3 inches and pull back toward the plant bringing it up out of the dirt.

Make sure it has a button like an onion.There are some plants such as a mountain lilly,helbow,and a type of indian turnip that favors a ramp but no button.

[Summit]

What are ramps?

Thanks to Ron Haven for bringing this topic up. I've enjoyed ramps for years. They are awesome and the taste is best described as a garlic and onion in one! Officially they are a wild leek. For more info and pictures check here:

http://main.nc.us/yancey/Ramps/ramps_or_wild_leek.htm

The purple color near the base of the stem sets them apart from similar looking plants. They also ALWAYS have two leaves as opposed to three with similar looking plants. If you've never had them cooked in stir fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, and anything else you like garlic/onions in, well . . . you haven't lived as they say!

[Ron Haven]

What are ramps?

We respect nature and when we dig one we pinch off the roots and bury them back in the same dirt.Hope all enjoys them.

[veteran]

Ramp photo links

http://www.rampfarm.com/ramp2.jpg

http://nosheteria.com/ramps.jpg

[Smile]

They are delicious, and have a tendency to sweat out of your body in a rather stinky way, but hiking - no problem

We respect nature and when we dig one we pinch off the roots and bury them back in the same dirt.Hope all enjoys them.

Very important Ron

[Cape078]

These things sound very good, I look forward to finding them and put some kick into my noodles... Bam!

does the re-planting the root really work for re-growth?

[Smile]

If you've never had them before, try a friday night where you don't have to work the next day

Ramps are best eaten with others who are eating ramps. There is a ramp festival over on Qualla, many cool recipes! (Cherokee Spring Ramp Festival)

[Bootstrap]

Oh man, I grew up eating these in Western New York (near Jamestown), but had no idea they grew in North Carolina! They are *wonderful*!!!

Jonathan

[emerald]

I like ramps, but I only relish them them in small quantities. I'm certain others will agree.

The 1st eaten raw is always good. Before I'm done with the second, I've already had enough.

Freshly harvested ramps added to fried potatoes, stir-frys, soups or with venison add something that can't be matched. Still, I think ramps are easily overdone and overcooked too.

[Smile]

Here's a little article I found as well on the Flag Pond Ramp Festival site ( Unicoi, TN, held in May)

What is it?

Ramp, ( Allium tricoccum ) a wild plant and is a perennial spring ephemeral also called the wild leek, are a member of the onion family (Alliaceae). Which was a common spring staple in Flag Pond and this Appalachian Region of Tennessee and is widely distributed in eastern North America. Most of the ramps are used in Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia.

All parts of the wild ramps are edible and taste like the sweetest green onion with a sharp, acrid sensationis accompanied by a vilest smelling odor when cooked. The key to eliminate the odor of cooked wild ramps is to eliminate its source. Keep in mind that cooked ramps leaves much less of an odor than raw ramps. Whatever we cooked for dinner, ramps is on the menu from middle of March to the end of May. Most ramps I have had is very mild and I like the odor. Most of my friends out of state wanted to try ramps the moment they heard about it, because they couldn't imagine wild ramps could smell that bad with the flavor of sweet green onion with a hint of garlic.

They are found:

Emerge in the springtime from the South Carolina to Canada and are especially popular in the Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. Flag Pond and the southern Appalachians represent the southern edge of its range.

The colonies of ramps or wild leeks can be found in cove forests and northern hardwood associations thoroughout the Appalachian Mountains, in rich, dark woodlands near mountain streams and in the northern forested part of New York are colonies of ramps or wild leeks in the mixed of maple,beech and hemlock.

Food

In Appalachia, ramps are most commonly fried with taters in bacon grease or scrambled with eggs and served with bacon, soup beans, coleslaw and cornbread. Wild leeks or ramps, however, are quite adaptable to recipes, they can be used just like onions and garlic and can also be used in soups, salads, puddings, sandwiches and others foods. Many of the world's fine chefs use the flavor of wild leeks or ramps in their recipes. A true ramp person like the flavor of wild leeks raw, but the powerful "leek odor" stays with one for days.

Concern that ramps are being over harvested on U.S. Forest Service land

Civic groups that pick wild ramps for spring festivals and folks that pick ramps for personal use will have to abide by new US Forest Service regulatory policy. A regulatory policy for the harvest of ramps on U.S. Forest Service land has been in effect for the past few years.

National forest service has become concerned that ramps are being over harvested in the National Forest. This concern has been heightened with the increasing popularity of ramp festivals, which require large quantities of ramps. Reports indicate that accessible ramp populations are smaller and less dense than those found in more remote areas of the Forest. Lands in the Cherokee National Forest are broken into compartments for the purpose of regulation the ramp harvest..

[Summit]

They are delicious, and have a tendency to sweat out of your body in a rather stinky way

I have a friend in Silva (near Franklin, NC) who said the public schools there have a rule that any student emitting a strong odor of ramps will be sent home for the day!

[emerald]

Does the re-planting the root really work for re-growth?

I'm dubious. That's not how one goes about propagating lilies.

Without leaves, there's no photosynthesis and only stored energy to draw upon. What remains of the plant would need to produce an apecial meristem from undifferentiated cells in order to grow new leaves. I'd venture a guess plants treated thusly dry up and do little more than contribute to the organic matter in the soil.

[Smile]

schools there have a rule that any student emitting a strong odor of ramps will be sent home for the day!

I believe it! It's sort of like garlic breath coming out from all over your body, but they are really good to eat, and a healthy treat as well.

They can also be grown in ramp gardens at your home if you live in the right area.

[Ron Haven]

They are delicious, and have a tendency to sweat out of your body in a rather stinky way, but hiking - no problem



Very important Ron

Smile I have a great place I visit regularly near Deep Gap and Cape078 I'm sure it does work.This place I revisit they come back really full every year.I probably have taken 2 or 3 hundred hikers there and they have really got a thrill digging them.There is also different wild leaf type plants I pick called,crows foot,branch lettuce and turkey lettuce.

I chop them along with chopped ramps leaves on the ramps also.I pour hot bacon grease over it.

[emerald]

Ever heard of seeds?

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

They are a wonderful addition to noodles and ramen... and the stinky sweat seems to discourage some of the blood-sucking critters like black flies and skeeters.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Ever heard of seeds?

They propogate in a manner similar to garlic and onions - the bulb makes little bulbs....