Last year I was super lucky to have an appointment with my herbalist the day after he had returned from a forage. That’s a noun, right? Forage? Anyway, we got talking about wild ramps and where to find them and I expressed how much I would LOVE to establish some in the woods behind my house.
Imagine my delight when he offered me some of the ramps he had in his car! I came home and immediately plugged them into the woods beside the compost pile. And, my chickens immediately began digging up all the dirt around them. Ugh. Chickens.
I decided the only way to keep them away from the ramps was to put something on top of them. The old dog crate turned chicken crate, sans plastic tray, proved to be genius. I set it on top until all the greens died away and all I had was a prayer that they would return the next year.
And, they did! Every one of them returned with beautiful bright green leaves.
And, I immediately got busy with work and forgot about them. Harvest is so hard for me – remembering, finding the time to harvest, then processing then preserving. I aspire to be better every year.
I finally remembered them on a day I wasn’t working and harvested them before they faded back into the soil but I wasn’t prepared to do anything with them.
Enter, butter. In my opinion, one of natures most perfect foods and a carrier for so many wonderful flavors.
Including wild ramps!
No recipe this time, folks. Just your good old common sense. Use, it. I know ya got it.
Chop those sustainably-harvested wild ramps up teeny tiny and mix into soft butter. Place the butter in the fridge for 30 minutes if it’s too soft to roll in wax paper or parchment. Then, form a log with a spatula and carefully mold it into a cylinder. Place wrapped ramp butter in a freezer bag and save for later – whenever you have a hankering for the spicy taste of Spring. I’m going to use mind like I would chive butter or herbed butter.
