By Patrick Donges
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-966996.mp3
Berkshire County, MA – Wild ramps, also known as wild leeks, are members of the allium or onion family. These garlic smelling and tasting plants grow wild in the eastern half of the country from Canada to New England.
Ramps are spring ephemerals, meaning their leaves disappear as the temperatures rise, branding them as a seasonal delicacy for restaurants and food purveyors across the country. Their recent gain in popularity as being one of the first tastes of the local spring harvest has made waves in both the culinary and conservationist communities.
Lawrence Davis-Hollander, an enthnobotanist and the founder and former director of the Great Barrington-based Eastern Native Seed Conservancy, says that while wild ramps have been harvested and eaten for ages, their notoriety is at an all time high.
"It's only in the last few years, maybe the last 10 to 12 years at most, where they've gained a lot of recognition across the internet and in food magazines and so forth. Suddenly there's been a large scale commercial collection taking place."
"The harvesting is being done by people who are in regions where ramps are plentiful. They range from people taking a couple of dozen pounds to hundreds or even thousands of pounds."
Ramps are uncommon in Massachusetts statewide, but they are locally abundant in the Berkshires. April 28 marked the final day of "Wild Leek Week," where several local restaurants served dishes featuring ramps.
Davis-Hollander said that while he has heard some local ramp patches have already been ravaged by indiscriminate harvesters, there are those attempting to harvest them sustainably. However, without a scientific survey of the total ramp population, there is no way of knowing how many ramps are too many to pick.
"We don't exactly know what sustainably is. The few studies that have been done seem to indicate that taking more than a very small percentage is deleterious to the ramp population. They're just not well studied."
Russ Cohen is a wild food expert who works for the Mass. Department of Fish and Game and author of the book "Wild Plants I Have Known and Eaten".
On May 1, Cohen was the first presenter at a series of local foraging walks dubbed "Where the Wild Things Are" presented by Berkshire Farm & Table.
Cohen described to the twenty walk participants that ramps have become a culinary commodity. Here he is demonstrating a sustainable way to pick ramps.
"What I did is just pick one leaf per plant. Which is okay, that's the good news I have to share with you about ramps because that wont hurt the patch."
"Then we will be able to have these in our environment and celebrate them, how great it is that we have ramps. Because wouldn't it be sad if they were irresponsibly over harvested and we had to say to each other, remember when ramps used to grow everywhere, now they're really hard to find'."
The foraging series is being presented as a component of Berkshire Grown's "Farmed & Foraged" weekend, a celebration of locally sourced ingredients by local eateries from May 20-22.
Events spokeswoman Angela Cardinali said the foraging walks are being held to educate the public about sustainable foraging practices already in use by local chefs.
"Many of them understand that it's a specialty item and they're taking a few and then leaving them so we can come back next year and do it again."
"What we're concerned about is the general public putting a shovel in the ground and digging up as much as they can and taking them home or trying to sell them."
Nancy Thomas, co-owner of the Mezze Restaurant Group, was on Cohen's foraging walk and said she was inspired by his focus on invasive species, like the Japanese Knotweed, which he said could be picked "guilt free."
"Ramps are one of the many edibles from the forest, but not the only edible. So I think it's important to learn about more edibles. Some things that I see easily in our landscape, we can maybe start to focus on that too."