Ramping Up

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As part of Lisa’s new job at a local nature museum, we’re going on a morel and fiddlehead foray on Saturday, with a chance at ramps. Nice work, and she got it.

Then, Lisa took the dogs swimming on Monday. She came home with a few ramps, the first time we’ve ever found them in our foraging trips, and they went into a wonderful leftover chicken meal yesterday. There were also rice, beans, and more herbs and spices than I can recount. The smoked peppercorns were new and wonderful.

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We went back there today with scissors and cobra-head weeders and returned with a mixed basket of ramps and fiddleheads. We also saw another very promising patch along the way. I think I’ll go back there tomorrow while she is in Montpelier at the GMO labeling signing ceremony.

This batch of ramps is bound for pesto. Stay tuned for the results. There are other recipes out there, and if I actually bring back too many, they can be chopped and frozen to replace scallions where called for. We’ve also learned that in the fall, there are big fat bulbs, for which she also has recipes. Again, the fallback is diced, caramelized, and frozen.

So far we only have enough current eating fiddleheads. Should more than we can eat turn up, we’ll try pickling.

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