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| Spoils of the hunt! |
One of the things that's a little tough about living in Green Bank is that to get really good produce, you have to go quite aways. Generally, most things -- be they shops, restaurants, grocery stores, or whatever -- are at least 40 minutes away. However, if you DO find fresh produce around here, it has the potential to be very, VERY fresh.
A bit over a week ago, one of the locals took a group of us out ramp hunting. If you are not familiar with these little delights, they are a type of wild onion, basically. They have a bit more of a garlicy flavor than some, and you can use them how you would use green onions, scallions, or things of that nature. Prior to this, the last time I'd picked them was when I was hiking the A.T.; we happened across a patch and just picked a few to add to our cooking pots that night. I would occasionally see them at the farmers market in NYC, but they have a fairly short limited growing season and tended to be expensive -- you really do have to trek out somewhere in the wilds to get them! But now I'm living in (or at least, near) the wilds, which means, RAMP HUNTING.
It was a fun experience, the person who took us out clearly knew exactly where they tended to grow, so the group of us were digging up and down and all around a creek that was simply swamped with the things. There were half a dozen of us, digging for at least 45 minutes, and we barely made a dent on them. We washed them up a bit in the creek, then brought them home. I brought home two big bags, one of which I gave away to a friend who'd not been able to join, and I still haven't finished cooking all of them up. So far I've made buttermilk ramp biscuits (with bacon!), fried fish with ramp aioli, ramp-and-lettuce soup (mixing two separate recipes), and I've generally just thrown them into several other dishes I've made (squash with ramps, chicken with ramps, BLTs with ramps etc). It's been fun cooking with them! They're very inspiring.
Yeah, this is a short post, I know, but hey. I've been busy. And look! I'm trying to update regularly again! Go me!
