Time for a Rampage

Author "Wildman" Steve Brill has written several books (and a video) about wild foods, including The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook, from which we took our ramp recipes for our April 2006 issue. You can visit Brill at his website www.wildmanstevebrill.com to learn more about identifying and preparing wild foods or to buy any of his books.

The Feast of the Ramson

Ramps Festivals are set throughout the Appalachians this spring (as they are every year). However, ramps are threatened in some parts of their range (mostly because of exploitation by ramps festivals!) We encourage you to explore areas where the herbs are not threatened.

For the past 68 years, folks in Richwood, West Virginia, have celebrated the arrival of spring with the Feast of the Ramson, which has its roots in the ramp feeds held in communities throughout the southern Appalachians when the region was the frontier. The odoriferous early spring plants are fried up in bacon or ham drippings to enhance the flavor of potatoes, scrambled eggs, pinto beans, cornbread, and other standard fare. There’s also an arts and crafts fair and old-time music. You can check for this years’s festival by clicking here.