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I found a leek

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
no painting today, so I took the dogs for one more run before turkey season starts. took my trowel and some bags, too. the the dogs treed 4 squirrels, and I dug leeks.
in case you didn't know it, there are actually two varieties of wild leeks, both grow in my honey holes.

ramps 4-9-21.jpg


Wild Leeks (Allium tricoccum) on the bottom right, Narrow-Leaved Wild Leeks (Allium burdickii) on the left. I didn't think to take any pics of them in the ground, but they are quite a bit different looking. the narrow-leaved variety has, of course, narrower leaves and greenish petioles, whereas the other has noticeably broader leaves and reddish petioles. A. burdickii is much more widespread where I dig them, and in huge patches in some places that cover an acre or more. the bulbs on them are generally smaller than A. tricoccum. the woods I was in today seems to have more A. tricoccum, but that is not the norm. I cannot tell any difference at all when eating them, but they are pretty easy to tell apart while in the ground if you look closely. I see ramp/chantarelle/squirrel gravy in my very, very near future. :D
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
do you freeze the pesto for use later or just keep it cold until it's gone? I'm going to do this this year if I have enough time to dig enough leeks.
 
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Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I have access to all the ramps I can stand to dig. I have got to do this. these are too damn delicious to not have some for more than a month every year.

do you add just enough evoo to make a green goo, or is there some required ratio of greens to oil?
 
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Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
the ramps I transplanted to my property three years ago appear to be spreading, but just a little. I've read it can take up to five years for them to really begin to propagate themselves. The ostrich ferns we planted in the wood last spring are all up now, too. I won't molest them this year, but I'll have a pile of fiddleheads to cut there next year. we have enough ferns in the yard at home home now that I can cut some every week until they are all fully unfurled, anyway. Nancy and I went after ramps again yesterday at one of my honey holes. dug some to transplant, dug a bunch to make pesto. was a good haul. I'll make pesto today, use the rest for cooking this week. I made shrimp scampi last night for dinner and it is recipe that is really heavy on garlic. I substituted minced ramps for the garlic, and it was, according to Nancy, the best rendition of shrimp scampi I've ever fed her. love the flavor of ramps. I'll use them tonight in Steak Dianne instead of shallots, tomorrow in canned venison instead of onion and garlic. I usually chop up the green tops and use them in whatever I'm doing, but the greens are a welcome addition to any salad. tonight we'll have a salad with home grown arugula, dandelion greens, chickweed and bittercress. all of these are "weeds" in our yard. probably throw some ramp greens in there, too.

IMG_3409.jpg
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
get shovel and bag, go for a walk in the woods. locate patch of leeks, dig carefully, handle with care so as not to break the petioles and bruise the greens. place cleaned leeks in water with roots attached to keep alive on the counter for a week or so if you have more than you can eat in a few days.

I've heard that it is the conservationally appropriate thing to dig them up, but cut the roots off of the bulbs and put back in the ground on the spot. I don't do that because where I'm getting them, they are extraordinarily abundant. literally acres of them. over-harvest is a real problem in some places because these are slow to spread.