[cooking] More ramps!

Went out with my sister to the ramp spot on Saturday. We got up there and there were a few patches of ramps here at there. I pointed to some at the base of one tree. A cluster of a few at the base of another. Like, "Look. See? There's... There's enough ramps." But it was obvious that it if we both picked as much as we wanted, we were going to decimate the ramp population. So we headed along the ridge line, deeper into the woods.

I saw a few more clusters as I made my way along. Then, looking further ahead, a saw some green through the trees. The nice thing about ramps is that they're easy to spot- the forest floor is covered with dead, brown leaves and the bright green of the ramps stands out well. But, what I was looking at looked like a sea of green.

I looked back at my sister, a ways behind me and down the slope a bit, managing to pick a few ramps here and there. I didn't want to yell, "RAAAAAAAMPS!!!!" before I was sure that that's what I was looking at. I kept walking until I was finally sure. A sea of green ramps. I called back to her and as we approached the patch acres of ramps, I couldn't help repeating, "Oh my god.... Oh my god..."

It went on forever. It felt like winning the lottery. Oh man, we picked so many. I brought them home and washed them.

I picked twice that many but dropped a bag full off at my mom's. 

First, my favorite way to preserve the ramps:

Ramp butter. Just salted butter, lemon juice and minced ramps. This makes the best "garlic" butter. I made two rolls and put them into the freezer. 

Ramp pesto:

Pickled ramp bulbs:

The bulbs aren't very big. I'm not sure if that's going to come a little later in the season, after they've had more time to grow, of if the patch is so thick/choked with ramps that they don't have enough nutrients to get very large. 

Heading back out again this week or weekend to get more.