Guess What Time of the Year It Is Again?

RAMPS!!!

My Daughter found a farmer that digs ramps on his farm and sells them for 8.00 a pound.  What a find.  I haven't bought ramps this cheap since I first discovered them.  And his idea of 1 pound is more like 3 pounds.  Right now, I have a lot of ramps!  He even dug 4 large clumps of them still in the dirt so that I could transplant them as clumps.  Ramp seeds take 3 years to germinate.  Ramp plants take between 7-10 years to naturalize.  I planted clumps about 6 years ago and they are still the same size.  I planted single ramps about 9 years ago and they have only just started to spread in the last 2 years. The rule of wild foraging is to never take more than 30% of anything.  With ramps it is 10%.  

My Daughter spent 3 hours cleaning them then it was my turn to make ramp butter.  Ramp butter is simple to make once the ramps are prepared but it took me another 3 hours to dry each one and check deep in the folds to make sure there was no mud hiding away.  

I chopped about two pounds of them and placed them in a  large bowl.

Then I beat 4 pounds of room temp butter with 2 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of pepper.  You can add lemon zest if you want but I omitted it this year.

Mix the chopped ramps with the butter.

Mix until they are thoroughly combined.  To test if you have the right proportions, Spread some on a Saltine cracker and if it's the best thing you have ever tasted, you've got it right.

I rolled these in logs wrapped in plastic wrap. The ramp butter will keep for up to a year in the freezer, just in time to do it again.  We use this on everything.  I also give it away to friends with loaves of homemade bread.  I will be at it again this morning as I have 6 more pounds to make.
 

* Sorry, I have butter on my brain.  I corrected it, it should have been pepper.