Around the middle of Spring, when the daffodils are fading but the deciduous trees have just started to leaf out, local talk turns to a culinary delight particular to the hollers and coves of Appalachia. Loved by many, hated by, well, probably just as many, the ramp, an especially pungent wild leek, serves as a sort of unofficial gastronomical mascot of the region. Community centers and county parks hold ramp dinners, often including the allium in as many dishes as possible. Today, Fuzzy and I followed Dunkard Creek down to Mason Dixon Historical Park, and the Annual Ramp Festival.
About two hundred people were gathered on the hilltop; clusters of tents surrounded a small log cabin whose porch served as a stage for two guitar-wielding men. In the course of our day, Fuzzy and I sampled batter-dipped ramps, sausage and ramp burgers (just for me, Fuzzy's a vegetarian), home fries with ramps, ramp bread, ramp cookies, and ramp wine, which was much better than you might think, though I made Fuzzy taste it first anyway. In addition, we also tried whiskey jam (damn good), fresh doughnuts (I don't think I even need to tell you how good those were), and drank a spring tonic of sassafras tea "to thin out that thick winter blood." We came home happy and tired, and my farmer's tan is now in peak condition. A shopping bag of ramps is sitting in the fridge right now, just waiting for some scrambled eggs or hash browns, or hey, maybe even some ramp pesto! I apologize in advance to my co-workers. It's going to be a smelly week.
2 comments:
Hey Liz!
Your description of ramps sounds rather ummm smelly. I am intrigued. How does one make wine out of a ramp? Why are they called ramps? Thanks for sharing more cultural traditions of WV!
Mel :)
Hey, Mel! I have no idea how the wine was made. It still tasted like ramps, but without the bite, kind of like how roasted garlic gets mild and sweet. The old name for ramps in ramson, because they sprout under the sign of aries, the were "sons of the ram." Ramson became ramps. Weird but true.
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