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We had the first radishes from our garden a few days ago. It reminded me that this is ramp season and I thought about this post and wanted to share it again. I am not sure we will be able to find ramps this year since we are not traveling into the mountains much. Our environment is not moist enough nor the elevation cool enough to have them on our property. This year when so many have been homebound, more people have attempted gardens and baking their own bread – me included. I love earthy root vegetables and dark leafy greens. Commercial supermarkets can be very limited on the produce they carry. Have you stretched your culinary muscles during the pandemic?
Day 184
Yesterday as I walked through our local Fresh Market grocery, I ran across a very familiar sight. There in the middle of the produce section was a plastic shrink-wrapped package of fiddlehead ferns with an accompanying placard explaining what they are.
When I lived in Maine and then in Alaska, we frequently foraged for fiddlehead ferns. They were cleaned, blanched and then frozen for consumption during the winter months. It was laborious especially if you gathered a large volume, but so delicious!
Seeing the fiddleheads reminded me of a place in Asheville, No Taste Like Home which offers foraging tours to learn about foraging for wild foods in this area. This is something I have wanted to do since we moved back here and this is the year!
It is a very cool concept. No Taste Like Home promotes itself as an ecotour company that specializes in…
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This concept is foreign to me, but it makes so much sense, especially if you know what you are looking for.
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It can be quite pleasing but areas where knowledge and caution are necessary.
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That makes sense
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I’ve only foraged for food in herb pots I grow on our deck. Not the same thing, but kind of the same thing. It’s all about the adventure, I suppose.
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It is such an interesting journey that requires some knowledge and dedication, but yes, an adventure at any level..
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I have no idea what a ‘Ramp’ is, and have never heard of a ‘Fiddlehead Fern’. The closest we ever got to foraging in London was to drive out to the suburbs on a Sunday afternoon so my mum could pick blackberries for pies and jam.
Now I live in the countryside, I am surrounded by all knds of wild mushrooms. But I don’t know enough about the poisonous ones to ever risk picking and eating any of them.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Ramps are a wild garlic/onion, Pete. They are very strong and a little goes a ling way, but delightful when used in moderation. The fiddleheads are quite tasty but laborious in gathering. I am with you on the mushrooms.i have no idea how to tell the edible varieties apart from the dangerous types.
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Spring never seemed real until we had our first radishes and our first rhubarb pie. Your post made me think of the long ago Ewell Gibbons telling us that we should eat the wild plant he was chewing on.
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I love a good rhubarb pie and I don’t need strawberries mixed in. And fresh radishes are so much more delightful in their flavor. Ewell Gibbons was sure a memory blast from the past, Don!
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I’m always tempted by fungi, but also scared to death of it – because some of it is horrendously poisonous (and/or hallucinagenic) 🙂
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I cannot disagree with you. I gather only what I know.
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Love how the fiddlehead fern looks like its namesake! I haven’t heard of them before. Foraging is a big thing here with tours to sign up to (though they stopped when Covid hit but may start again). I had to look up ramps. I guess they are a bit like wild garlic?
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Mary, if not picked, the fiddleheads will certainly unfurl into a fern. They are very earthy and delicious. Yes, ramps are a cross between a wild onion/wild garlic. Very pungent but delicious.
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