Im only setting the story straight because people are saying things about what was or was not called something or consumed which is not totally accurate. Im not going into docks etc there are numerous types. Mostly wanting to clarify wild onions that natives consumed in very large quantities this time of year.
Ramps being a type of wild onion/garlic is a loose term. What is probably meant is wild Allium genus, but majority of folks don’t know what Allium is, so referring it to onion/garlic is a fair analogy for most people, whose attention I’m sure the article is trying to capture.
Ramps should exist near me though I’ve never seen them on my property. I would love to go hunting for them in the future in the woods.
What I do have is tons of wild garlic, dandelions, mullein, plantains, dock. Your wild garlic looks more like what I consider garlic chives. But even wild garlic is an imprecise term.
Yes that is why i used several names above. It could have other names in other places. Your right they call it different things based on where you are.
In the summer poke gets tall and grows with many poisonous berries on top. The berries are a very good stain or ink. When its short it looks like those shown. It is only harvested when its young. People eat some raw from time to time and they die from consuming it. Many times people have spied on a family like mine from a distance gathering it and wrongly thought it was edible raw. That is a fatal mistake in every case if they consume much of it. My mother and the rest of my family come to visit often. Asked my mother if she wanted some and she declined. I said yes poison is high in these plants and she agreed. We both had eaten it around here and thought we will pass on having more from here. It is easy for me to be picky when im not hungry.
I have lettuce that comes back and seeing the young poke photos made me nervous that it could get into that patch and I wouldn’t even know. I wouldn’t want to eat it as I don’t know how to prepare it (and don’t want to end up boiling lettuce) thanks for the info I’ll look for photos of it as it gets warmer and see.
When it’s young, I would say the poke looks more like swiss chard (there are some with yellow veins), or dock. Lettuce will be way more tender and usually won’t have stalks. Lots of lettuce leaves are also curly or purple. Poke does look like romaine when lettuce is bolting.
I’m in a similar situation regarding wild carrots and poison hemlock. I sprayed all of the hemlock a couple years ago and it still tries to make an appearance amongst the wild carrots so I just started ripping them all out when I see them. Already this season of the dozen or so that I pulled out, about 2-3 had purple streaks forming on the stalks.
Wild carrot flowers also resembles that of hogweed which can burn skin if touched. I agree on the carroty smell of wild carrots. To me, it smells more like parsnips.
A number of years ago I wrote an article about wild onions v/s wild garlic. While doing research for the article I discovered ‘Crow’s Poison’. I looks like Wild garlic but it has red tips and NO smell of garlic or onion. It is toxic. They often grow interspersed with wild garlic.
Ramps grow all over our woods, I’d estimate to have around 25 acres and growing. We harvest one bag a week make pesto out of the tops and pickle the bulbs.
Right, I read only eat the wild allium it if it smells like garlic or onion. It must pass the sniff test. But after doing a lot of smell tests on allium, your nose might not work so well.
Pesto is my favorite use for ramps. I have transplanted several patches so I don’t have to hunt for them. You can find seed most of the time. It takes 5 - 7 years to get mature enough to flower, so overharvesting is a problem. The leaves only last a short while and the flower stalks are easy to miss. It spends most of the year completely under ground. They are probably just about done in my parts now.
Of my transplants, they seem to really like the ground under maples (leave the maple leaves alone when they fall) and they are doing well under ancient pear trees. (Again, leave the leaf mulch alone.) Mature Japanese maple creates a nice little cover for them to thrive under.
And just because: Europe has rampion, which work virtually the same way, but the flowers are completely different.
This thread only adds to the confusion regarding the different names for Ramps. None of the photos in the original comment show what is usually called Ramps, officially Allium tricoccum. Take a look at this Wikipedia page for some photos of the real thing: Allium tricoccum - Wikipedia . Note that Ramps have a broad leaf, nothing like an onion or garlic.
There is a similar plant growing in Europe called wild garlic or bear garlic, Allium ursinum, which is also a tasty vegetable frequently collected from the wild. I bought a single bear garlic plant a few years ago and planted it in a shady part of our yard, and now I have about a dozen clusters. It has a great flavor, if you like garlic; and the whole plant: bulb, leaves, flowers, and flowerstalks are edible. Because it likes shade, it is easy to grow in parts of the yard where no other edible vegetables can grow. I assume that the North American relative is similarly useful.
Around here, I find patches of ramps on steep terrain along river valleys. The best time to dig them up is around morel mushroom season. This is also around lilac bud/bloom time frame. Which is also the time to pick fiddleheads. I wish I had a pic of ramps to share, I’ll throw in a fiddle head pic…