You Can Install Your Own Ramps

Once a year, gatherers and cooks come together in a grassy springtime frenzy that is fiddlehead and ramp season. Fiddleheads, the curled young tops of some ferns, have always been a crop that could be grown at home, but ramps have remained elusive in woodland areas.

Why chefs love ramps

These soft onions have broader leaves than their counterparts; garlic, leek, scallions, and shallots, as well as a pleasant garlic flavor that’s tender enough to wrap around scallops . It’s not as strong as regular garlic so you can use it with wild vigor and you don’t have to wait for it to ripen. They are not as toothy as leeks, are less fibrous, and you can eat the whole plant, including the greens. They don’t have the size or spiciness of shallots, and they have a sweetness that green onions lack.

Ramps are just the perfect way to make an onion family member the protagonist, something you don’t see often unless you’re in an outback steakhouse. They are usually fried, which turns them into a kind of silky vegetable paste. You can twist them on a fork for buttery bliss. Since they are still onions, they complement almost any protein.

As a wild bow, rarity certainly contributes to the ramp’s prized status. But when you think about it, there is nothing amazing about them that could explain the almost mythological status they cultivated in the market culture of farmers.

Why getting food on the ramp is problematic

Ramps grow in patches under certain conditions. They are native forest dwellers and like to have several streams nearby. They like partial shade, most reliably under hardwoods, especially maples.

As with mushroom picking, ramp hunters tend to be very private about the sites they find, and for good reason. Like anything people love to destroy, over-harvesting on ramps has become a huge problem. Every time we assign a monetary value to a product and people become desperate or unscrupulous, they take without thinking about how short-sighted their actions are.

Think of affordable ramps like interest in a bank. For interest to continue to rise, you must leave most of the principal in the account. In order for the ramps to support themselves by creating new ramps every year, you should leave most of the patch in place.

It doesn’t help that it takes so long for ramps to reach edible stages, three years by all estimates. It’s good practice to take only the leaves, sparingly, and if you have to take the bulbs, be incredibly stingy and make sure you don’t disturb the entire plant. Roots can be easily damaged and it can take up to twenty years for a site to recover.

How to grow ramps at home

The good news is that you can save wild areas by growing ramps at home if you have the right conditions. Start by figuring out which zone you are in , ramps grow in hardiness zones 3-7.

Buy your ramps from ethical growers who grow from seed rather than taking ramps from the wild. They will arrive as individual ramps, not the clumps you get if you collect them from the wild. Be sure to plant them immediately, they can survive in your refrigerator for a few days, but you want them to be planted in the ground as soon as possible.

Again, you need to plant them under a tree, ideally deciduous, ideally deciduous, in a partially shaded, well-mulched, organic-rich, moist soil. If you’re planning for next year, consider prepping the area with wood shavings now so it has time to decompose during the season and grow mycelium.

Plant the ramps four to six inches apart, deep enough to cover the white of the plant. You can achieve this by using a piece of PVC pipe to create holes to the depth you want, then simply lower the ramp and lightly fill the hole with earth.

Keeping these specimens moist and in shade/partial shade will ensure their success.

When it’s time to harvest, remember that the same rules apply to your home garden: Remove only twenty-five percent of your ramps each year. Ramps should continue to fill and multiply, creating a sustainable supply for your yard.

It should be noted that you can also grow them yourself from seeds . It’s a three-year process that I myself never intend to undertake because as much as I love ramps, I also love knowing that I can leave the house for the next three years without abandoning my harvest.

Even with their three-year cycle, if you start with seeds, they are no more of an investment than asparagus beds , and possibly a much higher reward. You can buy asparagus all year round. You will probably be the only person you know with your ramp patch.