The season is now, Ontario. These made their way to dinner less than an hour after they were harvested.
What did you do with the white bulb from the bottom? My family gathers a lot of these from rural eastern Ontario every spring, but we only pickle and eat the bulb and throw the rest away. I am not a huge fan myself and I don’t like the green part of scallions, or chives, but it seems such a waste. I will save and prepare the greens for my mom if we do get some this year.
I usually just cut the top and leave the bulbs to keep growing. It's a sustainable way to harvest to ensure the ramp patches keep growing. They're getting rare in some places because of over-harvesting. If there are a lot of them in a place, I'll harvest a few whole ones, but leave the majority in the soil.
The leaves are just as good as the bulb. A simple way to prepare is to cut them into 2 cm lengths, sautee in butter and finish with cream, a bit of salt and pepper. I made a frittata with them for breakfast, added some grated parmesan to the cream for a lunch side dish, and will be making them into ravioli with some ricotta for dinner. There are a lot of recipes on the web for ideas.
I've never pickled ramps, but may just give it a shot this year. Apparently, they freeze well, but I've never tried that either.
It's a pity the growing season is so short, but I guess that makes us appreciate them all the more when they're here.
We just thin out our patches so there are lots every year. I just don’t like that ‘green’ onion/garlic flavour, so garlic scapes, chives and green onions are all off the list for me, unfortunately. One note that if you do pickle the bulbs, they are incredibly stinky and potent. As in you can still taste them 2 days later and you want to burn your fridge after someone leaves the jar open. :)
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