 Today my good friend, Kyle Nine Toes, gifted me some of the tastiest treats that Appalachia has to offer: ramps. Allium tricoccum is a North American species of wild onion widespread across eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Under much debate, ramps are often the target of local poachers, who will go through & harvest an entire patch, bulb & all, rather than leaving most bulbs behind to come up again in subsequent seasons. Kyle handed me an armful of leaves with no bulbs; this is his method of harvesting, ensuring that the patches he tends come up healthy year after year.
Poking their distinct & delicious heads up through the abundant earth along side these amazingly sweet oniony yummies are morels (Morchella esculenta), my favorite fungi! A meal of ramps & morels sautéed in a little bear fat is one of the most divine & telling apparitions of spring! Ramp pesto, ramp pate', ramp butter, even ramp wine! Everything is better with ramps! And once you've sampled morels, you will never think of mushrooms the same; distinct & delicate & so beautiful! So, go outside & take a hike! Put on your mushroom goggles & drop down on your hands & knees; get dirty & scamper around like the animal that you are. You may be richly rewarded for it in the form of a culinary delight! At the very least you will connect with the amazing living planet of which you are a part. Smell the soil & the flowers; listen to the birds; feel the wind upon your face, eat something wild & know that you are free...
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