A Spring Like No Other

Spring is the season I most anticipate. Normally it signals the end of winter and moving from indoor training to a real bike outdoors. Equally anticipated are the short lived springtime vegetables, in particular fiddlehead about which I have previously posted (see “Spring is Here!”) and ramps. Unfortunately Covid 19 has wreaked havoc on all our lives this Spring and at the time of this writing, into fall! The agriculture and food industry has been particularly hard hit. Instead of local fresh Ontario fiddleheads, or even those from New Brunswick, all that was available were shipped from California.

I can only speculate why that may be so. Possibly it was because of a lack of migrant workers to pick them this year and/or maybe it was because local purveyors couldn’t get into the food terminal to judge quality before buying. What ever the reason, all that was available to me this year were prepackaged Californian fiddleheads. Surprisingly they were large, fresh, and delicious; not surprising was they were VERY expensive this year.

I like to boil them briefly in heavily salted water so they remain crisp, around 5 minutes depending on how fresh they are. Timing is approximate so as they cook, it is best to intermittently test for doneness by biting into one. Served simply with butter and lemon, they are delicious.

Another delight spring brings are ramps, Allium tricoccum. They are also known as wild leeks or even wild onions. In Europe, they may be called wild garlic, although strictly speaking wild garlic is another species altogether.

Ramps aka wild leeks, wild onion, and wild garlic.

Ramps grow from a small bulb and in the right habitat, spread and colonize over time. Like fiddleheads, the leaves of ramps emerge in early spring. One of the things that makes them so special is they “disappear” within a month or two and remain dormant until the following spring. Although “wild”, they can be grown in ones garden which is a good thing, as over harvesting is a serious problem in Ontario further aggravated by habitat loss. Should you be lucky enough to find your own patch in the wild, it is recommended that you remove no more than 10% of a patch and rotate the area you forage.

As one might surmise from the variety of names by which ramps go, they taste a bit like spring onions and garlic. They are very versatile, and while they can be eaten on their own, I think they shine when used to flavour other dishes. The entire plant can be used (leaves, stems, and/or bulb) by blanching, frying, or simply chopping and mixing into any number of dishes. An article in the British newspaper The Guardian, suggest a number of interesting preparations including:

Deep fry in batter: à la Italy’s glorious zucchini flowers, only with wild garlic.

Salad dressing: Easy and flavoursome. Just make your favourite salad dressing and add pulverized ramps and blend.

Fold them into: soups, broths, omelettes.

Char them: Brown them on the BBQ or straight on the stove to serve as a side. The Guardian suggested sprinkling toasted sesame seeds on top, or finish off with EVOO and a dash of lemon juice.

Make pesto: Blend four packed cups of ramps leaves with half a cup of grated manchego, half a cup of pine nuts, half a red chilli, and half a cup of EVOO.

Fry them: With potatoes and bacon, they make delicious hash browns.

Good friends of ours have a maple grove which has an abundance of ramps. Being careful not to over harvest, they kindly pulled some for us. As they don’t last long, I used half right away. The other half was transplanted next to some trilliums we have growing in our backyard as according to my wife’s research, if trilliums can thrive, then so will ramps. (I will post an update next spring if the transplant is successful.)

With the half she didn’t transplant, I thought it would be fun to pickle them along with some blanched fiddleheads so as to be able and enjoy both over the summer. I turned to one of my favourite cooking sites, Great British Chefs, for instruction.

After washing, I sliced off the string roots at the bottom of the ramps and then a little bit above the point where the white part ends and the green leaves separate out. (I dried the left over green leaves in my dehydrator for later use, but you could use an oven set to low temperature.)

Reserved leaves for dehydrating.

Prepared ramps placed into sterilized pickling jar.

The pickling liquid was made by dissolving sugar in boiling vinegar and water, then adding pink peppercorns and some salt. The liquid was left to cool before pouring over the top of the ramps and fiddleheads.

Liquid poured over ramps and fiddleheads before sealing jar and refrigerating for later use.

After sealing the jar, they were refrigerated for a few days before sampling. Eating them over these last months has been a lovely treat. Unfortunately. just as summer is coming to an end, so too am I coming to the bottom of my pickle jar. Let’s hope that the pandemic is also coming to an end. In the mean time be safe.