Like any of my posts on wild leeks or ramps, I share a word on sustainability (so let’s get it out of the way early): I plead with you to only harvest or purchase them sustainably. Once they are harvested they do not grow back. Picking less than 5% of remote patches is the general barometer of sustainability.
We’ve made pesto with ramp leaves before – I wanted to find a different use for the leaves this year and have almost no freezer space left.
Ramp leaves are thicker-celled than most ‘herbs’ we deal with within our kitchen. They have more of a ‘leathery’ feel than a typical leaf and take longer to dry than many greens. I dried these at the typical 95 degrees used for most herbs (they took over 12 hours) although I think they could have taken more heat (the risk being that too much heat will turn them brown and/or kill the flavour).
When in doubt, I far rather going too cool and extending drying time of the product in the dehydrator. The exception to this being meat for jerky which needs extra heat for the preservation process.
The leaves dried brittle – but the stems stayed a tad soft – so I removed them with a pairing knife. The next time I dry ramp leaves I will cut the thickest part of the stem off (including cutting a notch in the leaf itself) by removing its thickest parts. This will reduce the drying time as I won’t have to worry about the thicker stem and will allow further dehydration of the leaf as the notch will allow some moisture loss.
I’ll be storing the leaves whole. Big pieces of any dried good will retain flavours longer than smaller pieces (which have more total surface area and, thus, more exposure to oxygen).
When we’re ready to use them, we’ll make flakes or powder them by chopping or grinding. This will be added to sauces, gravies, dry rubs and more! The garlic-onion flavour is an ideal savoury ingredient that I can’t wait to cook with.
We also dried the roots this year (to learn how and why as well as see a different version of my pesto, click here) – they remain one of my absolute favourite ingredients in my kitchen.
Don’t cut the corm, or replant the corm — try it– it works! We have found a couple of spots were you can insert a spade lift up a little, take a few ramps, from the edge of a bunch, and go from bunch to bunch in such a manner. I have taken the corms and planted them in my yard and had them come up, so I think you could remove them on site and replant them.
Will try that this spring! Thanks for the idea and sharing Jen!