Spring Foraging: what everyone should know before entering the ramp patch

How to harvest abundantly while protecting the native species

Here in SE Wisconsin, our vitamin-D hungry bodies are ready to move on from the comfort foods of winter. Our stash of potatoes, winter squash, and even rutabagas have all long run out. The greens in the freezer are dwindling. Even the dried herbs for tea and seasoning are running low. With grocery bills higher than ever, I am motivated to make the most of this growing season, including harvesting and processing the wild edibles.

Spring is a boon for many of my favorite plants (and mushrooms), so I’m planning ahead to make sure I have the ingredients, containers, and kitchen implements ready:

• basket(s) for gathering

• a dehydrator (much better for tender leaves than drying in an oven- although most plants with lower moisture content can be hung in bunches or laid out on a screen to dry.)

• Jars and lids: 4 oz, 16 oz, and 32 oz

• olive oil

• apple cider vinegar

• 80 proof vodka (some use brandy, just make sure the alcohol content is right)

• Sharp knives

• sea salt

• honey

The things I normally look for in spring include:

• wild onions, aka “onion grass”

• dandelion leaves and flowers

• dame’s rocket leaves

• chickweed

• violet leaves and flowers

• morel mushrooms

• pheasant back mushrooms

• Oyster mushrooms

• wild carrot (“Queen Anne’s Lace”) greens

• nettle

• garlic mustard

• beebalm shoots

• knotweed shoots

• asparagus shoots

These are all common in my area, so they’re easy to find. They are so prolific in some cases, that you couldn’t eradicate them if you tried. With dandelion, garlic mustard, dame’s rocket, and more, you can harvest all you want and can use. Each of these plants are super nutrient-dense, adding a significant dose of minerals, antioxidants, and trace nutrients often missing from even the highest quality domesticated vegetables.

People who have experience with the foraging world may notice that I didn’t list the super-hyped ramps, or wild leeks. That is intentional. I’ve written a bit about this plant over the years, and so far I maintain that if we want to preserve this threatened species for the future, we need to kill the market for ramps. I’ve even memed about it:

In other areas of the country, like New York, the high price per pound and ravenous demand for these ephemeral native plants has decimated their population, while development ruins its habitat. The pattern here is the same that has caused the extinction of many other species at the hands of human greed and/or ignorance. If you’re a podcast listener, check out this older episode of Gastropod where they discuss plants and animals that were so “beloved” by people that they were harvested into extinction. Many such cases. There is nothing stopping that pattern from repeating again with ramps, except our awareness and willingness to protect them.

Ramps have a 5-7 year lifecycle. It took that long for a seed to grow into a mature plant and produce seeds itself. At that rate, there is no way for production to keep up with the current demand. When you see a bunch of ramps on sale at the store, or featured on a local foods restaurants’ menu - remember that. Even if some farms claim to use sustainable practices, there is no standard established to flesh out that claim. United Plant Savers and others have conducted extensive research on harvesting and conservation methods, from whole-plant harvesting to cutting it off at the base to harvesting only one leaf. The information is there, it’s just not as widely circulated as foraging content creators’ viral harvesting videos. And it certainly isn’t being used to create regulations to protect the plants against poaching.

Before the hot take, let me name a couple of caveats. Nuance is important.

1. There have been great discussions about class dynamics when it comes to wild edibles, and this is true with ramps. There are those who harvest these plants every year, for their own consumption, who struggle with lack of access to food. This deserves attention, and meaningful solutions. Ramps, however, are not a solution for chronic food insecurity. They will not sustain these communities long-term, by nature of their slow life cycle and limited window of availability. They are also not calorie-dense. Any of the other spring edibles listed above would be a more abundant option, available at the same time.

2. Another important piece of this discussion is the long-held relationship that First Nations peoples have with the land in the areas where ramps grow - from southern Canada down to the southeast United States. I’m not here to say what Native people should or should not do when it comes to native plants. If anyone knows how to have a truly reciprocal relationship with a threatened species, it’s the people who carry on the ancestral practices that co-evolved with them.

Okay, now for the take: Stop harvesting ramps. Definitely stop posting yourself harvesting ramps and contributing to the frenzied demand. Absolutely never sell ramps. It’s plant trophy hunting at this point. Don’t buy them either. If poachers couldn’t sell them, they wouldn’t poach.

As a white person in land work, it’s important for me to advocate for ramps when and where I can. I will open a discussion with the chef, or the farmer/forager, or the produce manager when I see them on offer.

“But what if I’m only harvesting for myself/my household?” Well, there’s a couple things to that. Even if it looks abundant to your eye, you can’t know what the regional population of this plant is just by looking at one stand of them. If you’re harvesting from public lands, keep in mind those populations are vulnerable to over-harvesting because there’s no one there to stop it. Anyone with a shovel and a trash bag (yes, I’ve literally seen whole trash bags filled with ramps) can eradicate a population of ramps forever in one afternoon.

What if I own the land? Good for you. Obviously, no one can stop you from doing what you want there. But you owning the land doesn’t make it right. And at the end of the day, when your ramps are trampled and gone, it’s you who loses out. They are very difficult to re-establish, as other more quickly-growing plants move in to take their place. And when future generations take your place, they may not even know that ramps were ever there.

If you’re feeling defensive, interrogate that. Where is it coming from? Are you upset about losing the novelty and flavor of the ramps, or the potential to profit off of them? Would you rather keep your social media post of you harvesting them, that probably garners a lot of engagement, rather than post something educational to advocate for ramp conservation? Is it possible that your frustration is coming from a sense of entitlement to consume whatever you want, because you want to?

No worries. I’ve heard all of that before. But there is good news. There are a wide variety of other abundant, edible, and delicious wild plants to harvest, even as early as ramps. These under-rated super foods in their own right are just as deserving of the hype.

Maybe you already have a connection to this plant that you don’t want to let go of. That’s valid. Speaking from experience, it is possible to have a relationship with plants without eating them. We can sit with them. We can spread their shiny black seeds in the summer when you find them displayed on little unassuming stems. If you are lucky enough to have ramps growing on a property you own, you can register it with the Botanical Sanctuary Network through United Plant Savers.

You can conserve and try to expand the ramp patch, by controlling invasives in the area and digging up and separating the plants like daylilies when they first come up in spring.

You can be an advocate for them. Share this post with your forager friends, or a restaurant or grocery store selling them. These are all examples of ways to have a beneficial, rather than parasitic, relationship with these plants.

Okay! Ramp rant over. If you’re still with me, here are some of the things I plan to make with the spring edibles I will be harvesting:

• Garlic mustard pesto

• Dried nettle for infusions, fresh-cooked nettle for soups and quiche

• Wild carrot curtido - a fermented condiment like sauerkraut

• Sauteed mushrooms

• Violet infused oil for salves and lotions

• Dandelion flower infused oil with dehydrated flowers

• Dandelion flower infused vinegar for dressings

• Chickweed, dandelion leaves, and dame’s rocket leaves for salad and spring rolls

• Wild onions for everything from pesto to salad to curtido

• Beebalm shoots dried for seasoning

• Knotweed shoots cooked and eaten like rhubarb

• Foragers salt - a seasoned salt blend of dried wild greens

• Infused honey: beebalm, wild onions

I hope this was helpful and inspiring for folks looking to get out and forage this season. If you don’t have experience identifying wild plants, please grab a field guide like Wildflowers of Wisconsin, Edible Wild Plants by John Kallus, or anything by Sam Thayer. Better yet, search your local area for workshops, plant walks, and more to find a local teacher who can help.

There may be a lot of barriers and information gaps to clear in approaching a relationship with the land that isn’t coming from an extractive, colonizer-based place. I am in a constant state of learning in this area, and my perspective changes as I gather new information and experience. Mistakes will happen, but it’s our responsibility to learn from them. We all can and should accept the extended hand of the Earth that is being offered, in the form of abundant wild edible plants literally surrounding us this time of year. Each one is a way of the Earth speaking its own love language, saying we belong here. We can accept that invitation, without acting like bull in a China shop. Solidarity with the land and indigenous communities requires it.

Let me know your thoughts in comments. Happy spring, and happy foraging!