Every year, when spring rolls around, I hear about how it is ramps season. And somehow, they seem to never make their way to the Bay Area. At my local farmer's market (a pretty great one at that), when I asked about ramps, the pleasant but uninformed fellow replied, "nope, we don't have those but we have rapini!". Hmmm.
A few weeks ago at the Magnolia Gastropub, they had pickled ramps as part of their house-made pickles offering. I was blown away at their intense garlic-onion flavor, crunchy bulbs crossed with kim chee-like leaves. I knew right then, that if I could grow ramps in my backyard, I'd be a happy, happy man.
I managed to find some ramps this weekend at San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market at their indoor mushroom store (Far West Fungi) of all places. To counter my near-hysterical excitement, one of their clerks quipped, "thought you'd never find these here, huh?". Um, right.
Being a ramps virgin and all, I only bought one bunch but put every bit of the plant to good use. A smallish batch of pickled ramps (this recipe utilizing chili pepper mixtures, Japanese togarashi and Korean kochukaru, cribbed from Momofuku's David Chang) was applied to most of the bulbs and the leaves. I reserved some of the better looking leaves to chop up to add to some smashed Yukon Gold creamer mini-potatoes for dinner.
The verdict? Fresh ramps will fragrantize your fridge something fierce. Cleaning and prepping them fills your immediate area with a pungency that is mouth-watering. The leaves in the potatoes added just enough earthy garlic flavor - the leaves are not nearly as strong as the bulbs. And the pickles? I will have to wait for a few days but if they are anything like the rendition that Magnolia had, they will disappear quickly. Now, about growing some of my own....
Comments
I live in the South Bay (we've met, BTW, Apple friends in common) and have been keeping my eyes open for ramps, to no avail. My understanding is they need some sort of winter, so I'll be curious to see if you can grow your own. Do you know where the ones you got were grown?
Posted by: Susan | May 19, 2009 06:28 PM
no, i don't know where the ramps were grown...i was just so excited to get some, i neglected to ask. i have heard that they might be more available in oregon or washington ("up in the northwest" was what i heard...)
Posted by: wm. | May 20, 2009 09:10 PM
So, I have actually been just been thinking about growing Ramps. Bulbs are more viable than seeds as seeds can take up to 18 mth to germinate.
Next year, I am buying bulbs from here, let me know if you want to go in on an order.
http://www.rampfarm.com/catalog.htm
_A
Posted by: grow power | June 4, 2009 11:18 AM