Prices On a Rampage

Ramps

Ramps are big business this year, and demand is really pushing up prices.  The Dupont markets asked $4.50 for a bunch of four or five;  They were sold out before 10am.  NYC’s Greenmarket commanded $15 a pound, and they were selling.  Brabo’s Butcher block in Alexandria wants $20 a pound, and only had a few in stock yesterday…Who’d have thought during tough economic times a common Appalachian weed could fetch premium prices at the market?

Ramps and I have a history.  I went to school at West Virginia University and like any good visitor quickly did my best to assimilate the local culture and get a taste for local fare.  Her name was  Carla, and we got along great, and soon I was spending lazy Sundays at her folks place a few miles outside of town.  Her father worked the mines during the week and most weekends he was in his garden.  I was never sure if the corn he grew was fodder for the table or bait for the deer that wound up in my freezer slightly before hunting season “officially” started.

Legalities aside some great things came out of that garden and my favorite were the free stone peaches that peaked in the summer.  Each spring her old man would fight late frosts, wrestling with tarps blankets and garden hoses to preserve delicate blossoms that would later become a bounty of pies and preserves.  It was about the same time that ramps would start to emerge from the freshly thawed soil.

Unfortunately the common convention was to boil nearly a bushel of them whole for half an hour before tossing the wilted specimens with bacon fat or some other dressing.  The results were not unlike cabbage that’s boiled too long.  Acrid and pungent, the smell would linger in the house for what seemed like days.  Eat just a bite and it would seep from your pours.  It’s hard to think of anything so odoriferous being considered gourmet.

Treated right ramps can be bright and wonderful.  The trick is work with the greens and the bulbs seperately.  Trim the white bulb away from the leaves and pickle them.  The leaves when blanched in hot salty water, taste fresh and alive.  Cook them no more than 4 or 5 seconds, and then make a pesto, or toss them on a pizza.  A chiffonade of raw leaves would be great in scrambled eggs.  Just promise not to boil away thier brightness.  While most college romances fade away the pungency of boiled ramps will linger on — seemingly forever.