- In May I wrote about Peanuts
- In June I wrote about Bug-Resistant Summer Squash Substitutes
- In July I wrote about Squash Blossoms and Other Edible Flowers
- In August I wrote about Kohlrabi
- In September I wrote about some less common greens: Celtuce, Jewels of Opar, Chrysanthemum Greens, Eat-All Greens
Ramps
For October, I’m writing about ramps. October is a good time to plant ramps bulbs and seeds. Bulblets are better planted in early spring. Ramps thrive in USDA Winter Hardiness Zones 3-7. Some of this material is from my second edition of Sustainable Market Farming, and the sources quoted here.
Today, ramps are a wild-edible delicacy in most places and defines a sort of Appalachian or Eastern U.S. “terroir”, but what was once a commonly found plant is now a rarity as land development and sprawl, deforestation, and over-harvesting by some foragers has decimated the population.
Ramps, (Allium tricoccum) (aka wood leeks or wild leeks) combine some of the flavors of leeks, onions, and garlic. They are a traditional and newly fashionable food. Ramps are a native woodland perennial that can be wildcrafted sustainably or raised in a suitable woodland.
“The ramp has broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems, and a scallion-like stalk and bulb. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible. The flower stalk only appears after the leaves have died back, unlike the similar Allium ursinum, (Ramsons) in which leaves and flowers can be seen at the same time. Ramps grow in close groups strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil.” – Cultivation of Ramps, North Carolina State University
It takes a ramp plant 7 years to reach sexual maturity from seeds and produce more seed. The plants are mature when their leaves reach heights of 6”-8” (15-20cm). From planting bulblets it takes 3-5 years to reach harvest size. So I’ll start by explaining how to wild-craft the leaves, then move on to info on establishing your own ramps.
Harvesting ramps leaves
Ramps are a spring ephemeral of deciduous forests that can be wild-harvested sustainably for 1 month in the eastern half of the US and Canada, starting when tree buds appear. By late May, the leaves yellow and die back, and a flower stem emerges.
Wild ramps are being over-harvested, and it is important to make sure that not all these wild culinary delights vanish and they are still able to find their way onto plates in a sustainable fashion. Take only what you can use in a few days. Only 5% to 10% of the ramps in a patch should be harvested each year to ensure their future survival. The most sustainable harvest method is to cut only one leaf, leaving the bulb and second leaf to continue growing. Before harvesting from public lands, check local regulations. There may be limits on where, when and how much.
There are some toxic look-alikes so be sure the plants you pick smell like onion or garlic. If you’re unsure, let a knowledgeable forager confirm your find or just don’t pick them. Do not pick Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) or False hellebore (Veratrum genus) by mistake.
Harvesting the leaves with bulbs attached is also possible, if the area has plants to spare. To harvest, use a sharp strong knife, such as a hori-hori and slide it into the soil at an angle. Cut the bulb just above the roots, and leave those in the ground to regrow. Take only the leaves and bulb. Some say a wildcrafted whole ramp (with bulb intact) is never a sustainably harvested ramp. Bulbs can be frozen for later use.
See the video How to Sustainably Harvest Ramps from Carriage House Farm. It uses a similar knife technique but removes only stem and leaves.
Buy ramp seeds, bulbs and bulblets
To get started, you can buy seeds year-round, bulbs in September and October, and bulblets in late winter at Gates Hill Farm rampfarm.com. Once you have established some plants, you can divide and replant annually.
There are about 50 seeds per ounce, roughly 2 per gram. Ramp seeds require a warm period followed by cold stratification to break dormancy. If there is not an adequate warm period after sowing, the seed stays dormant until the second spring. This explains the wide range of 6-18 months to germinate ramp seeds. It’s easy to see how wild ramps get seriously over-harvested.
Collect ramp seeds in August and September
If you were wild-crafting ramps in spring, late summer/early fall is time to pay the piper. Collect seed and scatter it over the patches you dug from. Or collect seed to grow in woodlands at home – without of course, taking too many away from a place they could grow naturally.
Establishing a ramp planting
Ramps grow best in deciduous woodlands with adequate moisture. There are projects to re-establish ramps in a number of regions in the Eastern United States.
Carriage House Farm is one such attempt by Grow Appalachia, which is a program of Berea College in Kentucky, Grow Appalachia works with farmers, gardeners, ranchers, and conservationists across a five state area to reintroduce old native and heirloom species of plants. Ramps is/was one plant in this program. https://carriagehousefarmllc.com/journal/2019/4/24/on-ramps?rq=ramps
Jeanine Davis, Extension Specialist, Herbs/Organics/Specialty Crops/Vegetables, Horticultural Science, NCSU, ran a ramps harvest study in 2022.
Resources with more on Ramps
- https://www.wildedible.com/blog/foraging-ramps on sustainable wildcrafting, by Eric Orr
- https://modernfarmer.com/2016/09/ramps/ Cropped: How to grow Ramps, by Frank Hyman
- Having Your Ramps and Eating Them Too by Glen Facemire, McClain Printing, 2009.
- Ramps, Part 1: Wild Delicacies Under the Forest Floor by Bjorn Bergman, Edible Madison, 2012 https://ediblemadison.com/stories/ramps-part-1
- Ramps, Part 2: Sustainable Ramp Harvesting. Bjorn Bergman, Edible Madison, 2012. https://ediblemadison.com/stories//ramps-part-2
- Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal, and Other Woodland Medicinals, by W. Scott Person and Jeanine M. Davis. New Society, 2014
- Jeanine Davis, New Crops and Organics. Ramps. NC State Extension, 2022. ces.ncsu.edu/specialty-crops/ramps
- NC State Extension, Cultivation of Ramps (Allium tricoccum and A. burdickii) Revised 2025, has lots of reliable information on cultivation, harvesting, pests, and conservation status. This publication cites Forest Farming Ramps. Agroforestry Notes. AF Note 47. 2014. USFS. Although published in 2014, the plants grow the same way, and the publication has useful info on habitat, lifecycle, site selection and preparation for cultivation as a forest understory. The online links, are, naturally not much use now.
- PennState Extension: Emerging Research on Ramps; Pugh, Cathryn, & Norman, Calvin. Ramps (Allium tricoccum). PennState Extension, 2023. psu.edu/ramps-allium-tricoccum Cathryn Pugh & Calvin Norman
- McDermott, Timothy. Ramp Cultivation. 2017. Ohio State University. osu.edu/mcdermott.15/2017/03/14/ramp-cultivation
A Good Resource for Unusual Vegetables and Fruits
https://www.savannainstitute.org/publications/
Uncommon and perennial fruit and nut crops, agroforestry, silvopasture. Dig around the website – there’s more info than at first apparent.
- Planting Tree Crops, 110 page resource for farm-scale edible agroforestry.
- https://www.savannainstitute.org/planting-tree-crops/
- Elderberry Grower’s Guide for the Midwestern US:
- https://www.savannainstitute.org/elderberry-guide-download/
- Black Currant Grower’s Guide
- https://www.savannainstitute.org/download-black-currant-guides/
- Pawpaw – Key Tree Crop document
- https://www.savannainstitute.org/download-pawpaw-key-tree-crop/
Many other publications on tree crops, Key Perennial Crops, black walnuts, Asian pears, persimmons, honeyberry, mulberry, serviceberry, aronia, cider apples.