Yet another application for the wild ramps. I have been reading about kraut and kimchi. I love both, and as I thought about all the ramp greens I had, it made sense to get some of this going. Of course I’m not inventing anything new, but thinking about how delicate ramp leaves are, I envisioned the greens withering down into a soft green mass after salting, pounding and stuffing tight into jars.

I grabbed a head of cabbage and shredded just as I would when I make sour kraut. Then, I chopped all the ramp greens into 1-2″ pieces and mixed well. I specifically wanted to have more ramp greens than cabbage. The cabbage was just there to add structure and crunch. I had a total weight of 2843g of ramp greens and cabbage, and to that, I settled on 3% salt.

I put everything into a 5g clean bucket to pound it down. The idea here is to bruise everything up and get it to create its own brine. There should be no need to add any water. I made two variations. The first was cabbage, ramps and caraway seed. The other was the same, plus some shredded carrots and dill.

Give everything a mix and make sure the salt is evenly distributed. The brine will release pretty quickly, so it also helps to get things integrated. Finally, pack everything tightly into jars. I save a few whole cabbage leaves to use on the top, just under my weight. The idea is to keep everything under the surface of the brine. This prevents mold from growing. If you do this right, it’s one of those things you’ll be able to set and forget until it’s done. I do use the special lids that have an air vent in the top for wide mouth mason jars. This particular set comes with 4 lids, 4 glass weights and a tamper to pack the kraut down in the jars. Crocks are great, but for smaller test batches of stuff, using wide mouth jars is less maintenance. I always have a jar of kraut ready to open. Having it in multiple jars keeps the smell and bugs down… and I NEVER have any problems with mold starting. Here’s the same set without the tamper and slightly cheaper.

Here’s a pretty clever thing you ramp harvesters can do when you’re wanting to prolong the magic of the season, so to speak. I have a culinary bone that needs constant feeding, and when I grill or smoke, I have an assortment of rubs that I tend to have ready-made. I’ve ground the dehydrated tomato skins left over from my sauces to make a tangy tomato powder base for other rubs. I’ve also dehydrated halved garlic cloves to make my own powder. Well, it just seemed downright necessary to make a ramp-based salt or rub with all these ramp leaves. It’s easy.

Clean your leaves and lay them out to dry. I put my leaves in a dehydrator… and they readily dehydrate. It only took a couple of hours with a little heat added. You can also cold-smoke the leaves initially if you want to add a bit of natural smoke but you’ll see how I faked it with the smoked salt in a moment. You’ll eventually add some kind of salt, and I’d suggest either a kosher or sea salt… basically, something with a course grind.

I have a stash of applewood smoked sea salt that I used to blend in. This particular salt is almost overly smoky so I thought skipping the cold-smoking was prudent this time around. I took the dehydrated leaves, crunched them up and stuff them in my spice grinder along with a certain amount of salt. I like to grind the salt with the dehydrated leaves to help integration, and by the time it’s done, you really can’t see the salt. It leaves a nice, earthy, salt blend, ready to sprinkle right on food… use as a rub, or used in the other curing applications. Later on, I did manage to add in some of my homemade garlic powder. I can’t wait to get this into some charcuterie.

If you have any other clever ideas on making salts and rubs, I’d love to hear them. In the meantime, here’s a few pics of the process.

Here in SE Indiana, April/May is morel and ramp season. For those days we go out and not find the beloved morel mushroom, we can pacify ourselves a little when we bring back some saddles and wild ramps.

Ramps, aka Allium tricoccum, or spring onions are a North American perennial. Think green onion with 2-3 much broader leaves, and more of a pungence. There are a couple of varieties too. Around here, there is a variety that has a purple/burgundy streak coming up the leave stems (tricoccum) from the bulb, and there is the narrower leaf variety with no purple (burdickii). While the entire plant of both varieties is edible, we try to preach harvesting them sustainably. You can wipe out a ramp patch if you give no thought to harvesting. Ramps are bulb-dividing, rhizomes… just like ginseng and ginger. Their popularity has seen a surge in the last few years. About 5 years ago, I transplanted some on to my own property and have been leaving them alone to do their thing.

Ramps from seed can take 6 to 20 months to germinate and even after germination, another 5-7 years before it is large enough to harvest. Remember that when you eat the bulb of a ramp, it likely took up to 7 years to form. It’s my thought that if we’re eating them, we need to be propagating them even more. Generally, I harvest only the leaves… and on occasions, I will take some bulbs from a well-established ramp patch to make a jar of pickled bulbs, or another personal application. Still, I cut the roots from the bulb in a way that keeps them intact, and I’ll return those to the ground. It’s the least I can do. Moral of the story is, if you take, then you should work to put back.

Below are some picks of my personal ramp patches (both varieties) and some public lands I hunt on.

Now that we know how to properly identify and harvest wild ramps, let’s talk applications. I’ve always enjoyed the greens sautéed in butter and garlic… and of course with sliced morels! This year, I wanted to change things up. Thus far, I have not harvested any roots or bulbs and limited my harvesting to only the leaves. With these leaves, I have a few other projects underway. Click it out:

• Wild Ramp Salt
• Wild Ramp Kraut
• Wild Ramp Chip Dip