![]() ![]() Yet ramps, because of demand, have become at risk of being over-harvested from the wild at an unsustainable rate. When you visit the farmers market this spring they’re the native edible to look for in April and early May. And in recent years ramps are in high demand: gourmet food markets and chefs at high-end restaurants want them, and local food lovers, like you, want them, too. ![]() Different from cultivated crops, like tomatoes or broccoli, ramps require the fertile soil of the forest floor to survive and propagate. “They would have been a critical early spring food source for ancient peoples right through modern times.”Ĭovering the forest floor, signaling the beginning of springtime in Appalachia, ramps belong to the allium family, and are considered a woodland medicinal. “Ramps are a spring tonic-one of the first green things to come up,” says Chip Carroll, land steward at the national nonprofit United Plant Savers (UPS) in Rutland, Ohio. Take a walk down south through the Wayne National Forest and you might spy the emerald flushes of the ephemeral, edible wild ramp ( Allium tricoccum). ![]()
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