QUICK PICKLED RAMPS
- 1 pound of cleaned ramps
- 1½ cups white vinegar
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1½ cups water
- ¼ cup salt
- 1 tablespoon mustard seed
- 6 allspice berries
- Red pepper flakes to taste (at least a pinch)
- 1 bay leaf
- Sterilized jars, rings, taps
Combine all ingredients except ramps. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pack ramps into jars and ladle the brine over ramps to fill the jars. Seal at once. After jars have cooled store in refrigerator. Ramp pickles will be better after sitting for at least 4 weeks.
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
Matt and I wanted to go dig ramps this spring but it hasn’t happened yet. Our favorite way to eat them is in a big pan of fried taters.
Ramps don’t grow right here where we are, but I wish they did. We’ve tried transplanting and starting from seed but haven’t had any luck with either.
Our friend who lives over the mountain in Pine Log has managed to start a dandy patch at his house.
You can find our cookbook here.
Last night’s video: We Got A Lot Of Work Done!
Tipper
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Ramps are not on my menu, but a lot of folks in Haywood County eat them and the finer restaurants in Asheville serve them as a seasonal delicacy. When I was in grammar school, children would get sent home if they had eaten ramps. The odor stayed on their breath for days and the classrooms and hallways reeked. Some kids would eat them just to get sent home!
When I was a kid in the early 50’s we lived in the Chestatee Wildlife Refuge where my dad was Wildlife Ranger (game warden). Before the state gave him a jeep in 1953 he had to patrol back in the mountains on his personal horse, Sandy. He would find patches of ramps and bring home a ‘mess’..sometimes a pocket full of chestnuts was a real treat for my brother and I!!!
Tipper – I decided to check if we had Ramps here in B.C. Apparently, we do – I have seen but did not know what they were but recognized the flower. So thought I would come back and share 2 videos – for your interest – as the one shows and tells how to replant them to make your own ramp garden as well as how to preserve a ramp patch by not taking the bulbs – or every bulb – and to just use the leaves if not transplanting – – and there are some recipes between the 2 videos. https://youtu.be/3pdwyXPABIs?si=FaCrHtVZsfjqi2ut – and – https://youtu.be/vdr0SMp2QCg?si=Xxtwxu8d0c7-kCZq
I’ve never seen ramps in my neck of the woods, but the recipe sounds delicious! I love fried potatoes and onions so I know I would enjoy ramps and of course, the pickled ones too.
I don’t think we have ramps here in my corner of the world or if we do, I don’t recall anyone talking about eating them, or maybe they call them something else here. We do have a ‘wild onion’ so maybe similar? Anyway – on a totally different ‘path’ – I went for a lovely walk with you Tipper over the weekend – I do that sometimes – as I love the peacefulness and quietness of this video of yours from a few years ago. https://youtu.be/Nh3jYk6uo2s?si=affoZGqwCriV3ZkO
Wanita, I’m so glad you enjoy that walk! 🙂
I had never even heard of ramps until I started watching your channel. If I remember correctly, they are from the onion family or they taste sort of like onions. I just know they would be delicious with fried potatoes! Yum!!
A friend of mine has a place up in Jefferson County on the New River and brought me back some ramps. Naturally as a gardener I couldn’t bring myself to eat the bulb so I planted them after I ate the green. They came back. It turns out ramps are a little more fickle than they let on. They want a certain type of soil, a certain amount of sunlight, and if you plant them by seed be prepared to wait seven years for them to come up. And that’s if they come up!
As far as I know, I’ve never eaten ramps but while growing up I loved wild onions. My parents weren’t very happy with my eating them and use various ways to stop me. None worked
“Ramp pickles will be better after sitting for at least 4 weeks….”
Pretty much true of any pickle, right? But I guess it’s going to come down to, will they last that long or will you have eaten them before the four weeks have gone by?
I’ve never eaten ramps to my knowledge, but I have a ramp story to tell. When I was a little girl, our family had one milk cow. The grass in our small pasture had just about played out, so one of my chores was to take Ol’ Daisy over by the creek to graze. The grass was lush and green by the creek, and as a little girl, I didn’t know a ramp from a blade of grass, so I let Ol’ Daisy have her fill. Oh my!!! Needless to say, we were not able to drink her milk for days! 🙂
Betty, not ramps but have heard of people’s milk cow eating bitter weeds and being unable to use the milk. I have never heard of a cow eating wild onions.
We tried to keep wild onions killed back so the dairy cows wouldn’t eat them and ruin the taste of their milk. I couldn’t drink wild onion infused milk back then but these day I am oft to crumble cornbread into milk and add chopped onion to the mixture.
In my experience cattle don’t graze where wild ramps grow, way back in the deep dark woods.
I’m going to go ramp hunting on our property this spring and see if I can locate some! They look awfully familiar, but I’ve never eaten one. I think the stories about cooking them outside or being banned from going to school are funny. I figure they must be incredibly good for you if they are that potent!
Maybe if eating an apple a day will keep the doctor away, eating ramps every day will keep EVERYONE away!
Ramps surely didn’t grow in my hometown, or Mom would have found them. It was here on BPA that I first heard of ramps. Since that time, I have identified several huge patches down in the bottom field. I was nervous about eating them even after Google Lens identified them as wild leeks. The reason I was afraid to try them was that the leaves were narrow, less than half the size I saw in pictures. We are working hard to thin them out so they can grow bigger, broader leaves once they are not so overcrowded. My grandson and his wife cook them on the grill and put them on their burger or hot dog. My favorite way to eat them is in a salad or fried in a pan of taters. Picked ramps sound good.
Been a great long while since I as much as saw a ramp. I like the woods they grow in better than eating them. I did perk up at your mention of transplanting them. I’d like to learn more about any transplanting you have done in the “big woods”. I recall you have mentioned a few times rescuing ‘old home place plants’ from the woods as well as some woods-to-yard transplanting. But I do not recall a woods-to-woods transplanting. I should have known though you would do that to because (to paraphrase Will Rogers) “you never met a (plant) you didn’t like” or hardly any. And you have always been pressed for space. So going to the woods gives you lots more room. Maybe you could do a post or video about that?
I love ramps but like an itinerant preacher they stay with me for days.
Heard a lot about Ramps but have never eaten them. I don’t really know and haven’t ever heard anyone say if the grow in our area. The recipe sounds delicious!!
I love ramps. I miss going up the mountain to look for them. I miss the mountains !!! My mama called the mountains God’s country and I agree!
I have never even heard of ramps until I started watching your channels. Love it.
here in Oklahoma the Indians dig wild onions early every spring and a lot of the Indian Churches will have wild onion dinners. The menu use to consist of fried chicken or ham, beans, wild onions and eggs, sofke, blue dumplings, fry bread, goose berry pie, blackberry cobbler, and other desserts. Most people boil the onions for a few minutes to help soften them, then they put in a skillet with a little bacon grease and cook them another few minutes then add eggs and scramble. mmmmmm good. I managed to find someone who was selling onions they had dug so I bought enough for myself, my aunt, and my sister. I cooked a mess of them and then what I did not give away I put in my freezer for any of us to enjoy at a later date. From what you read in one of the books I presume ramps do a number on your body’s ‘chemical makeup’ for a day or so after consuming them—onions do not have that effect so while I am sure the ramps are probably wonderful in fried taters, I think I appreciate the fact that we grew up on and still enjoy our yearly portion of wild onions rather than ramps lol.
Good morning, Tipper and Acorns. Yesterday’s video was a pleasure to watch. Your hard work made everything so nice. I pray that everything grows well and that this year is a year of plenty. I can’t wait to See Ira and Woody picking strawberries. I bought some of the grape Outshine pops. I’ve had the tart cherry, and they are very sour but good. I’ve also enjoyed the cherry limeade ones. I have never had Ramps. Lots of folks here them. Too many people pulling them up has decimated the crop base over the years. They get harder and harder to find like most of the natural things we used to have plenty of. Ed has slept most of the past 2 days. I’m hoping he can stay up enough today and is able to eat something. Yesterday he had a sweet potato, a little apple sauce and a bowl of oatmeal. I made a pot of your Cabbage Stew and had 2 bowls yesterday. I hope he gets to eat at least 2 small bowls today. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Hollow in my prayers. TY all for your prayers for us. I love you.
Barbara, I’m still praying for Ed and for you!!
I am praying for you and your son, Barbara.
What are ramps? They look similar to a scallion? Do they grow wild?
Janice, they do grow wild 🙂 Different than a scallion. Here’s a video I did a few years ago about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5BC5TANmc4
thank you for the recipe, God bless you very much
I have never knew of anyone eating ramps, I don’t guess they grow in my area. I have read a story about a boy eating a bunch of them and not being allowed to come to school for a few days because of his odor. I guess this was back in the one classroom days.
Allie and others, this morning the weather headline on all three of the local news stations is similar -record heat, no rain in site. One interviewed a local ‘big time” farmer, he said he had not planted anything because of it being so dry, the cost of irrigating the crops was too much to make it profitable. I know farmers like him have their own fuel storage tanks and buy their diesel fuel in large quantities but I saw yesterday the cost of diesel fuel was around $5.75 a gallon in my area. Off road diesel would be a little cheaper. My local JD dealer told my son he could use off road diesel but it was “dirtier” and his oil and filters wouldn’t last as long, he wouldn’t save much in the long run.
Let’s all pray for rain
I’ve seen firsthand teachers putting students outside when they ate ramps. Our school had been built by the TVA in the 1940s to replace several smaller schools that were flooded out by Fontana Lake. Our school had big airy rooms with big windows and with a nice wide hallway. Sometimes when the headcount was smaller there would be extra room available. Errant scoundrels who ate ramps were often relegated to these rooms if available or to the hall. If the weather outside was nice the would be allowed to sit outside.
Some took advantage of the understanding of the principal and teachers who themselves had had the same sort of upbringing. Not me though! I ate ramps too but was mindful of the school schedule and avoided them if I had school the next day.
Wow! I’m sorry to hear how the farmers are struggling with this record heat. Diesel is
about $5/gallon here right now. My husband just brought that up yesterday. We are under the watch for potentially very severe weather here today (late afternoon into evening). Praying for the Lord to be with us all!
I have never heard of pickled ramps but they sure sound yummy. I agree with you, though, it would be hard to beat a big pan of fried ramps and potatoes!