What Can You Do With Ramps? Here Are Four Suggestions

Ramps--also known as Allium tricoccum or wild leeks--are one of the most pungent plants known to humankind. They're found wild in the forest beginning in early April, sometimes extending into early May. So appealing are they to some people, that Rapunzel's mom traded her for a fistful of them, resulting in the golden-haired beauty being locked in a tower.

In the last few years, ramps have caused a sensation as soon as they arrived in the Union Square Greenmarket, and this year was no exception. Their most notorious purveyor is Mountain Sweet Berry Farm from Roscoe, New York, a small hamlet in the verdant Catskill Mountains. The first couple of days the ramps appeared at the stand, they sold out before 9 a.m.

This weekend was different, though. A cold wind from the East and diving temperatures kept the hordes away from the market in the morning, and heaps of beautiful ramps were in evidence, available for $3 per bunch. I bought two bunches, and on my way home by bike, I could smell the intense odor wafting up from my cloth grocery bag, overwhelming the city's other smells.

Once home, I set about making an all-ramp dinner for a number of dinner guests that evening. Here are the four things I did with my ramps.

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