By Stephen Smoot
“Ramps announce the arrival of spring in the woods,” stated an article published by the West Virginia University Extension Service.
They also serve as a staple of the Appalachian diet since the earliest days of settlement. Historian John Alexander Williams wrote of them that “ramps, or wild leeks, wild vegetables that appear in the forest every spring, often poked their pungent leaves up through the snow. They have a bad odor when cooked, but are otherwise wholesome.”
Williams went on to write that “children and everyone else looked forward to their coming and they have become a traditional Appalachian food.”
According to Annie Humes, executive director of the Pendleton County Farmers Market, “unlike garlic, green onions, or other similar alliums, they don’t thrive in a traditional cultivated garden environment. They are uniquely suited to forest environments.”
Humes goes on to explain that “this means that, especially in mountainous wooded regions where cold winters and rocky ground make gardens more challenging, they are one of the first bounties of nature available to folks as the spring arrives.”
Even before the arrival of European settlers, the Cherokee valued these plants for both food and health purposes. On Travel Culture.com, an article explains that “the Cherokee used raw ramps as an ingredient for a spring tonic.”
“For native communities and early settlers whose diets were completely reliant on what was locally available, green vegetables, which are essential for nutrition, had been unavailable for many months,” Humes explained. She also stated that “by ramp season, you can imagine there was a great deal of joy at the prospect of a haul of savory greens that came on their own from the woods without laborious gardening.”
Local entrepreneurs have increasingly worked to bring more products to the market. Many scour the landscape looking for ramps to sell in farmers markets or even on the side of the road. Many use them in brown bean soup, once regarded as the official food of West Virginia.
Humes suggests that “the best comparison when it comes to cooking with them is with fresh baby spinach. They can be added to any dish where a collard, or a spinach would be welcome, but must be added later in the cooking process to keep them from overcooking.”
In recent years, ramps have developed into, as Vox.com described, “America’s trendiest produce.” Springtime now ushers in “an annual frenzy” of the “food-obsessed on the East Coast.”
Prices of the precious plant hit $20 per pound three years ago.
Rising prices have boosted interest in commercial harvesting, leading some to consider national forest land as a perfect area to scavenge. U.S. Forest Service officials, however, share every year the guidelines for picking ramps on federal lands.
“While collecting ramps for personal use is permitted on the forest land within established limits, commercial harvesting of ramps in the forest is prohibited,” said a forest service release last month.
It also stated that “Personal use is defined as two gallons per person in possession at any one time, about the amount that fits in a typical plastic grocery bag. This equals about 180 whole plants, including roots and leaves. Individuals may not collect ramps on behalf of someone else or for a fundraiser.”
“The craze in recent years for ramps, in my opinion,” says Humes, “is part of a broader rediscovery of the bounty of our forests and the natural environment around us, especially by those who are not blessed to be surrounded by nature in their daily lives.”
“On the one hand, this has led to astronomical prices for ramps in urban markets, and to harmful over harvesting, but on the other hand a greater understanding of what is needed to conserve and protect these gifts of nature for future generations has also grown.”
Ramp season extends from early April to early June.
