May 9, 2024 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Ramps

 

What's In The Box

Watercress:  This green is in the “cress” family and has a peppery, spicy flavor, similar to arugula.  It may be eaten raw in salads or lightly wilted down or blended into soup.  Fat & acidity help to balance the pungency of this green, such as dressing watercress with a vinaigrette or serving it as an accompaniment to fatty fish or roasted meat.  We have washed it for you, but we suggest you give it a final washing in a sink of clean, cold water before you use it.

Chives:  This week’s chives may have a purple bud or blossom, which is also edible!  The bright flavor of chives makes them a nice garnish for soup, scrambled eggs, casseroles, chive oil, and so much more!  You may also choose to blend them into chive cream cheese, chive compound butter, or with oil to make your own chive oil!

Ramps:  This week you will find two bunches of ramps in your box!  Both the leaf, stems and bulbous base are edible.  We are nearing the end of the season and had to harvest around the rainstorms, so the leaves in particular may be more delicate and should be eaten within a week.  Enjoy ramps lightly sauteed or raw in egg and pasta dishes, risotto, salads, etc.

Asparagus:  Store asparagus in the refrigerator with a moist cloth or paper towel wrapped around the base of the stalks to keep them crisp and firm.  While you can eat asparagus raw, it is most commonly cooked.  It may be roasted, sauteed, grilled, and stir-fried.  

Overwintered Cilantro:  We gambled a bit and planted this cilantro late last fall, hoping it would be ready before winter set in.  While we weren’t able to harvest it last year, this crop survived the winter due to the mild temperatures we had!  Cilantro is a great vegetable to incorporate into spring dishes as it helps the body cleanse and detoxify.

Overwintered Parsnips: We stored these parsnips over the winter in the field and dug them this spring.  They are sweet and delicious, almost like candy, especially when roasted!  You may notice some rusty blemishes on the exterior.  This is something we see sometimes in the spring.  It usually only affects the surface and may be cut away.  

Overwintered Sunchokes:  This is another root vegetable that we overwintered in the field and dug this spring.  They are a tuber that grows on a plant that resembles a sunflower.  They contain a nondigestible fiber called inulin which is considered a prebiotic and feeds our gut bacteria to help keep them healthy.  The unfortunate side effect is that some individuals experience digestive discomfort when eating them.  We’ve found it’s dose-dependent, so eat sunchokes in small amounts until you know what your threshold is!  Sunchokes may be eaten raw or cooked.  If cooked, you can prepare sunchokes in similar ways to how you’d use a potato.

Carola Gold Potatoes:  We squirreled away a few bins of potatoes from last fall’s abundant harvest.  They have stored pretty well in cold storage, but they are at a point in their lifecycle where they want to start sprouting.  Thus, we recommend you use these potatoes within a week of receiving them.  If you do have some that start to sprout, cut out the sprout and use the remainder of the potato as soon as possible.

Stinging Nettles: This green is named as such because it has “stingers” on the stems that can cause skin irritation if handled before cooked.  Once nettles are cooked, the sting goes away and you can touch them with bare skin.  For this reason, we recommend that you cook them and do not eat them raw.  For ease of handling, we have packed the nettles in a clear plastic bag.  If this is your first time, we encourage you to read our previous blog post from 2018 prior to opening the bag.  This blog post includes important information about how to handle and prepare nettles.   Use nettles in any way you would use cooked spinach, such as soups.

Overwintered Spinach:  Due to the early onset of spring this year, our overwintered spinach crop came in well ahead of schedule!  The crop is well past the “baby leaf” stage of growth, which is usually when we harvest it.  We let it grow to a larger leaf and have bunched it for you.  You’ll find this to be some of the most flavorful spinach of the year, but it is a more mature leaf.  At this stage we find it is best when cooked as it softens the leaf, making it silky and smooth.  

Vegetable Feature: Ramps

Ramps, sometimes referred to as “wild leeks,” are one of the first signs of spring we see emerging on the wooded hillsides of our valley. They have a very short season which is typically only 3-4 weeks. The flavor of ramps is similar to onions or garlic, but they really have a unique flavor that is best described as “rampy!” Ramps resemble a green onion, except they have tender, delicate, lily-like leaves and the base of the ramp becomes more bulb-like as it matures.

Ramps as far and wide as one can see!

Preparation & Usage:

Ramps may be eaten raw or cooked and can be used in ways, similar to a green onion. When raw, they can be quite pungent, however the flavor mellows with cooking. You can eat both the leaves and the lower bulb, just trim away the roots. Ramps pair well with cream, cheese, bacon and other spring vegetables including mushrooms, asparagus, nettles and spinach. Ramps also pair well with eggs in scrambles, frittatas and quiche and are often incorporated into pasta and rice dishes. Ramp pesto and ramp butter are simple preparations that may be used fresh or can also be frozen as a way to preserve that delicious spring flavor!

Storage Tips:

The leaves on ramps are delicate and the most perishable portion of the plant. Ramps that are more mature and harvested under wet conditions often have a shorter shelf life. Thus, we encourage you to eat them within a few days of receiving them. Store ramps in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.  If you are going to keep ramps for several days, it’s a good idea to wrap the leaves with a damp paper towel.  The bulb portion of the ramp will store longer than the leaves, so some may choose to separate the bulb from the leaves and store them separate.

Growing Information:  

Ramps grow wild in the woods on north-facing hillsides early in the spring.  While they can be replanted in woodland areas that are conducive to supporting ramp populations, it takes awhile for them to multiply and spread.

Additional Points of Interest:  We have been wild-harvesting ramps in our valley since the mid-80’s.  Many individuals are concerned about the sustainability of harvesting ramps.  Of course, we want our ramp populations to remain sustainable as well, thus we carefully manage our harvests.  We harvest from private land which allows us to rotate harvest areas. 

Additionally, ramps grow in clumps and we’re careful to only take about half of a clump while leaving the other half undisturbed.  We’ve been implementing this practice since the very beginning and our ramp populations remain strong and healthy!  With the future in mind, we have been planting ramps in a few wooded areas on our land over the past few years.  It will be awhile until we can harvest from these areas, but they are well-established and we’re hopeful they’ll thrive into the future!

Spring Tambuli with Ramps and Greens

Yield:  4-5 servings

Tambuli is a saucy Indian side dish based on leafy greens, spices and buttermilk or yogurt.  It is often served cold or at room temperature with steamed rice as a side dish or first course.   I (Chef Andrea) am still learning about Indian food, so I realize my adaptation of this recipe may not be the “traditional” way this dish is made in India.  However, the fun part of cooking is using food to explore other cultures, different ingredients, flavor combinations and cooking techniques.  This dish is very simple to make, but very flavorful.  You can enjoy it served simply with rice as a side dish in a meal or add protein to the dish (e.g. cooked chickpeas or chicken) and enjoy it as a main item.  This saucy preparation may also be served over cooked potatoes or with eggs, or use as a dip for pita, papadum or anything else! In my research, I also found that this dish is very adaptable to whatever ingredients you have in season.  So, if you like this recipe, don’t be afraid to experiment with different greens and onion varieties throughout the season.  And lastly, if anyone in our membership is from India or Indian descent and has anything they’d like to share with us about this dish, I’d love to learn and share more with other members!

4 cups lightly packed fresh greens such as spinach, nettles and/or watercress

1 bunch ramps, bulb and leaves separated

1 Tbsp ghee, coconut oil or vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

4 whole black peppercorns

2-3 pieces fresh or dried curry leaves (Optional)

1 cup yogurt or buttermilk

3 Tbsp coconut flakes

Sea Salt, to taste

Steamed Rice, for serving

For Finishing (Tempering):

2 tsp ghee, coconut oil or vegetable oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 dried red chile (crumbled) or a pinch of red chili flakes (to taste)

1. Prepare the leafy greens by washing them well, shaking off excess water, then separate the leaves from the stems.  Roughly chop the leaves and any tender stems, set aside.  
2. Finely chop the bulbous base of the ramps and set aside.  Cut the ramp leaves into thin strips and add them to the pile of chopped greens.
3. Heat the ghee, coconut oil or vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a medium sauté pan.  When the oil is hot, add the chopped ramp bulbs, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, and curry leaves (if using).  Sauté, stirring frequently, until the ramps are tender, and the spices are aromatic.  Add the leafy greens to the pan and season with a few pinches of salt.  Cover and let the greens steam for a minute or so to wilt down.  Remove the cover and stir to combine.  When the greens are soft, remove the pan from the heat.
4. Add the greens mixture to a food processor or blender along with the yogurt or buttermilk and coconut.  Blend until it becomes a fairly smooth paste.  Add a little water if it is too thick.  It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, kind of like a thin yogurt.  Taste and add additional salt as needed.  Transfer to a serving dish.
5. The finishing touch on this dish is called “tempering.”  For this step, heat another 2 tsp ghee, coconut oil or vegetable oil in the same sauté pan you used for the greens.  Heat the oil over medium high heat.  You may want to carefully tilt the pan slightly so all the oil pools on one side.  When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and chili pepper.  Fry them until they are fragrant, moving them back and forth in the oil with a spatula or spoon as they cook.  When the mustard seeds start to pop, remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour the oil mixture with the chiles and mustard seeds into the yogurt and vegetable mixture.  It should sizzle when the two mixtures come in contact, releasing flavors into each other.  Stir to combine.  It is ready to serve at room temperature.  Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Recipe adapted by Andrea Yoder from one entitled “Tambuli with Stinging Nettles or Spinach” found at Food52.com.