I’ve been out all day planting (thanks to the bounty of the nature goddess) several buckets of roots and remnants of ramps — the leavings and root trimmings from a local ramp festival feed.
Our local Southern Appalachian ramp festivals are becoming so popular that our native ramps — the first green harbingers of spring — are becoming endangered, so we need to pay particular attention to replenishing the root stock if we want to enjoy ramps (and I do) into future generations.
For the uninitiated, ramps are high in selenium and other nutrients, and although eating a large [amount] of them might hinder your social intercourse for a few days, the positives are well worth any untoward negatives.
— Betty Cloer Wallace
Asheville
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For more information about ramps and other edible native plants, as well as non-native mushrooms, see “Forest farming” by Cinthia Milner in the “Features” section of this edition of MtnX:
http://www.mountainx.com/garden/2011/051811forest-farming
You don’t need a huge woodland to grow some of these forest products. If you have even one hardwood tree in your back yard, you can grow some of these products under it, right here in downtown Asheville.
Ramps can also be grown from seed easily and that is a good way to propagate them without digging until you have enough to harvest. They bloom after the plants die back and the seeds are ripe by the end of September. Scratch away the leaf litter where you want them. Place the seeds in contact with the soil. Cover with leaf litter and on the second spring you should find baby ramps germinating.