BY ALDONA BIRD
When I talked to my knowledgeable friend Silas about ramps a few weeks ago, he mentioned that there is a European plant very similar in some ways to our ramps, but genetically different.
Interested in learning more, I talked to my Austrian cousin, Sonja, to ask about her experience with foraging these early spring greens.
Our American ramps are Allium tricoccum, and the European ramsons (Sonja calls them bärlauch) are Allium ursinum. Different species, but both in the allium family along with garlic, chives and onions.
Bärlauch and ramps do have some things in common; Sonja described the flavor of bärlauch as similar to onions and garlic, which goes for our ramps as well.
“Everyone eats everything with them here, when they are in season,” Sonja told me. She said the leaves come out very early, in March and April.
Sonja finds bärlauch growing in abundance in wooded areas — she said it’s easy to go for a walk, catch a whiff of garlic in the air, and follow it to a patch to fill a bag with the leaves. Although our ramps don’t spread their scent through the woods, Europeans eat them similarly to how we eat ramps — as pesto, in dumplings, soups, etc.
“You have to eat dumplings with that when it’s the season, at least once,” Sonja said. She described very tasty-sounding bread dumplings and promised to send me the recipe.
Sonja also sent me info about pickling the flower buds to use like capers. I don’t see why this wouldn’t work with our ramps, and I may head back to the woods to pick a few buds to try pickling.
A few key differences between these two plants I noticed from her description were that bärlauch bulbs don’t seem to be harvested. She wasn’t even sure if the plant has bulbs. While we were talking on zoom she stepped into her backyard to check, and we couldn’t see any bulbs close to the surface of the soil — she would have needed a shovel to dig them up.
Ramp bulbs can grow deep, but many are close to the surface, so this to me was one of the notable differences. I did find some articles online mentioning ramsons bulbs and how to eat them, but I’d trust my cousin over info online. I also read that the name bärlauch translates to bear garlic or bear leek because brown bears like to dig up the bulbs to eat.
Sonja also mentioned that some care must be taken not to confuse them with lily of the valley leaves, which are highly toxic — she said just two leaves can be lethal, and in Austria every year there is a poisoning from the confusion. But she said if you pay attention they are easy to tell apart.
By the time our ramps are in full bloom the leaves have died back. Last year I took a walk in my woods at just the right time, and came across patches of the large round clusters of white flowers, sans leaves.
Bärlauch have a different growth pattern, and flowers bloom with leaves still on the plant. But Sonja said once the plant starts to bloom the spiciness of the leaves fades and so they stop picking them.
I think the similarities and differences of these two related plants is interesting and hope someday I can travel to Europe at the right time to be able to taste ramsons and learn some new recipes to bring back and try with ramps.
ALDONA BIRD is a journalist, exploring possibilities of local productivity and sustainable living in Preston County.
