By Susan Guynn
News-Post Staff
SATURDAY WAS THE 11th annual Ramp Cook Off at Deep Creek Lake State Park in Garrett County. It’s a competition where participants prepare their tastiest dish using ramps — fried, grilled, saut?ed or raw.
I’ve never been to this event, but I do have a fondness for ramps. They grow wild in the eastern U.S., in the woodlands from the Carolinas to Canada. On a good weekend, dinner at the Guynn house could be wild ramps with morels and rainbow trout. Didn’t happen this year, but we have enjoyed some fresh rainbows and ramps fried with potatoes, and fresh ramps chopped into a salad on a couple of occasions.
Ramps have a flavor that’s a combination of onion and garlic. The plants begin to emerge in March, and April is the big month for harvesting. By May, the leaves start to yellow and die back. Over the next few months the plants will flower and develop seeds, hopefully producing more ramps next year. But, according to ramp expert and author Glen Facemire Jr., ramp seed germination is 5 percent or less. The West Virginia native has a ramp farm and sells ramps via the Internet (rampfarm.com).
More here.
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