Thinking of Spring: I Miss Ramps

Today we are staying in, relaxing and making soap later. Outside the trees are turning beautiful golds and reds and browns. This colourful feast for the eyes is reminding me of spring, when the world erupts in a palette of bright greens, pinks, and reds. 

Spring Flowers
Southern Ontario has an awesome diversity of spring flowers. There are several beautiful flowering plants that are among the first things to grow in early spring. Don't pick wildflowers; some plants will die if you pick even a single flower.

Trout lilies.

Trout lilies are gorgeous, the hanging flowers are beautiful warm shades of buttery yellows and pinks. The leaves are speckled and resemble brook trout, giving the flower its name. They can carpet the forest floor and seem to prefer old growth Carolinian forest and moist soils (from my observation), but not low-lying and marshy areas. Trout lilies are found throughout eastern Canada in wooded environments.

Mayapples.

If you find trout lilies, good chance you will find mayapples. They are tall (under 50cm) with broad leaves. They also flower and produce fruit; the fruit is edible but can cause adverse reactions which is why I haven't tried is. The rest of the plant is inedible, however mayapple is reported as having certain medicinal properties. I plan on doing some in-depth research on this plant over the winter, and maybe will harvest some next year if I can find something useful to do with it. 

Trillium, Ontario's provincial flower.

And of course there is the beautiful trillium. Do not ever pick or damage these plants, the entire plant dies if the flower is picked. They range in colour from white to pink to red. They can occur densely and blanket huge swaths of forest floor (like trout lilies). Trilliums are also called "birthroot" as they have been used as uterine stimulants.

Cool symmetry, bro.

Blue cohosh. Sorry for poor photo quality.

There's another spring woodland plant that is a uterine stimulant. Blue cohosh is a flowering plant with multiple uses. In the spring when the leaves are new it looks purplish-blue, but eventually turns green over the course of the season. It has tiny, unusual looking flowers.

The roots of this plant were used by Native Americans and Europeans to induce labour, treat menstrual cramps, and induce an abortion. It is used as a general laxative or muscle relaxant as well. Apparently part of the plant can be used a coffee substitute as well. As much as I would love to try out cohosh root as a treatment for menstrual cramps, it's properties as a uterine stimulant scares me a little too much. I would definitely have to get in contact with an expert with a lot of experience in using cohosh before I tried it.

Skunk cabbage.

You might be walking through the woods in the spring, enjoying the wonderful, earthy smells of damp soil and growing flowers. Suddenly, a pungent scent fills the air, with a distinct skunk-like odour. You panic and make sure your dog hasn't been skunked. Then you notice large, leafy cabbage-like plants growing in the low-lying swampy area near you.

That smell is skunk cabbage, and if you break a leaf or crush any part of the plant it releases it's strong skunky odour, that has a hint of onion or garlic mixed in. It's unpleasant, but the plant is very beautiful. This is one of the first plants to start growing in the spring, and will start emerging in swampy areas immediately after snow melt. It can be incredibly abundant in marshy areas. 

Skunk cabbage was traditionally used by Native Americans as food and medicine, but consumption of this plant is not recommended. It contains calcium oxalate crystals in the leaves, making it extremely irritating and can cause intestinal discomfort. The large leaves were also used for food preparation and storage; however due to the strong skunky smell I don't think I will ever use the leaves for fear of it imbuing its nasty scent on food it came in contact with.

So, Is There Anything Yummy Growing in the Spring?
Yes! There most definitely is. There are a few things to watch out for, but I will start with the first thing you will probably encounter.

Ramps, Allium tricoccum. One of the large patches I found in old growth Carolinian forest. Large patches could be several meters of diameters and contain hundreds of individual plants.

Ramps (also know as wild leeks, spring onions, wild garlic, etc.) are among the first edible plants to pop up in the spring. They can be abundant and grow across much of southern Canada and throughout much of the USA.

They are beautiful, having one or two vibrant green, blade-shaped leaves growing from a white-red stalk and with a bulb buried a few centimeters below the soil surface. Ramps smell like garlic; if you crush the leaves, chop the stalk, or just pick them you will smell the garlicy-odour. It's very distinctive and useful in IDing these plants. The leaves are several centimeters long, approximately 15cm (or roughly the length of my hand). The stalks can be up to 1cm in diameter and several centimeters long. They may be small, but they are very flavourful.

Unfortunately, ramps can be somewhat rare, and in places there is legislation protecting how they can be harvested. Depending on where you live, you should check with your local authorities/conservation groups to see if there are limitations on harvesting ramps or if they are rare in your region. Don't harvest them if they are rare/endangered in your area.

If you find abundant ramps and are going to harvest some, do so responsibly. The ramps I found were typically growing in huge patches, numbering hundreds of individual plants within a patch. I would harvest from these large patches, as opposed to the small clumps of ramps I would find scattered around the bases of trees. I could collect a few dozen at most from large patches, and I would spread my harvesting over the entire patch (i.e. not just harvesting from one section). Then I would move on to the next big patch of ramps I found and harvest more. I have read that you shouldn't harvest more than 5% of a patch, but I always harvested less than that (a little bit of ramps goes a long way in a dish!).

Scissors and Leatherman for scale. Notice how the stalk turns from red to white near the bulb.

When you pick ramps, pinch the stalk as low as you can and pull it out of the ground. Sometimes you need to trim the roots if they are particularly big and tough. The entire ramp plant is edible. The leaves are good in salads, and the stalks/bulbs are good in pretty much anything you would add garlic and/or onions to. The flavour of the stalk and bulb is oniony and delicious.

Cleaned ramps, with a couple of fiddleheads.

Ramps are considered a delicacy. I can attest to this, they are a wonderful addition to a variety of dishes. They are easy to harvest once you find a large patch.

I made several different dishes with ramps, and I use ramp butter in a variety of dishes (I still have some frozen ramp butter in my freezer that I like to add to special meals). My next post will describe how I used and prepared ramps, and I will provide several recipes that I made. 

As we move in to winter, spring seems far away. But I recommend that when spring does arrive, that you keep an eye for this delightful wild onion!