Wild Garlic, Wild Leek or Ramp

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With Spring well under way, it is time to start foraging once again. The young dandelion leaves are out and so are the nettles, but there is one plant we were looking for: Wild Garlic.

Wild Garlic in its natural habitat.

Sometimes called Wild Leek or Ramps (or even Ramsons, Buckrams, Wood Garlic or Bear Leek), this Garlic is not at all similar to the store bought version. It doesn't even look like an onion. The leaves of the Wild Garlic are broad and rather beautiful. They almost look like they would make an excellent ground cover for a flower bed. The stems are reddish and extend to a small white bulb.  It is only when you pull a leaf from its stem that you get a sense of what this plant is about. You get an immediate scent of garlic.

Freshly picked and cleaned Wild Garlic

Both the leaves and the bulbs are eatable. The leaves have a touch of sweetness; they are a bit peppery and have a mild garlic taste. They make an excellent addition to salads or can easily replace lettuce in a sandwich. We've even had it in soup and as a pizza topping.

The bulbs are reminiscent of garlic. Perhaps milder with a greater touch of pepper hotness. They can be used wherever you would use garlic, but I think they are great just raw. Although we have not tried this yet, they probably make an excellent pesto.

All in all this is just a wonderful plant and a versatile food. In the end, we had to try to preserve some in the hope of storing a taste of Spring for this year's Winter months. To do this we used a simple brine (2 parts vinegar, one part salt) which we boiled and added some pickling spices.

Pickled Wild Garlic

With the success of the Wild Garlic find under our belts, we decided to search for more.

When we first arrived at the farm last summer, we were surprised to find in abundance a plant that looked like chive. These were growing pretty much everywhere even between our rows of berries. When we picked it, it had a distinctive onion and garlic smell.

This year they are back (in greater numbers than ever) and were easy to find as the greens twisted into "pig tails".  We discovered that these were in fact Garlic Scapes. They are the green shoots of hard neck Garlic varieties (we'll have to dig later in the season to find the bulbs).

We had never tried them but apparently they are starting to become a well known delicacy, sometimes found in farmers' markets.

Garlic Scapes

We decided to give them a try as well. To do this, we ended up foraging for another spring time delicacy: the Fiddleheads. Last year, we had noticed the large Ostrich Ferns growing in damp soil on the edges of our forest, mostly in the shade of some of the larger trees. The Fiddlehead is the unfurling young shoot of this fern.

A great combo: Garliic Scapes and Fiddleheads

Armed with Fiddleheads and Garlic Scapes, we prepared a great spring time dinner: a simple omelette. It was our first great taste of things to come.

Thrilled with the flavour of the Garlic Scape in this omelette (better than Spring onions), I thought it might be wise to preserve some as well. There are at least two simple ways to do this. The first is to chop them and seal them in freezer bags. The second is canning.

We did both. For the canning effort we just cut our scapes to snuggly fit one of our large mason jars. We used our brine solution and in this case added some dried herbs (oregano and rosemary).

Pickled Garlic Scapes

We'll now have to report next Winter on our attempts to can a bit of Spring.

Of course this week was also dedicated to planting. We received our second shipment of stock: 240 Black Currants and 120 Red Currants from British Columbia.

Another shipment: 360  "Ribes" (currants) to plant

The Red Currants are a Dutch variety called Rovada. The Black Currants are an entirely new variety. We picked this one not for its size, its yield, or easiness to harvest, but simply for taste.

Both Red and Black Currants are wonderful berries for jellies. In the case of Black Currants, it is also fantastic for making wines (including Melomels or fruit Meads), something we're clearly dying to try.

So Tristan and I were back to planting rows all week. We were rather proud of ourselves when we finished the lot. Until of course, we realized we now have hundreds of raspberry plants being shipped next week. The back breaking work will continue...

The first half of our rows are completed

On the vegetable gardening front, things are growing so fast we've succumbed to our Springtime excitement and decided to transplant more of our seedlings. We are now past the average last frost, so we know we are taking a risk. However, the 14-day forecast looks good so we'll be keeping our fingers crossed.

While working on transplanting, we have also decided to trial a variety of trellising concepts (for cucumbers, beans, peas and tomatoes).

A collection of trellises ready for experimenting

In fact, we were spurred to do this because of the rapid development of our wax beans (an endangered French heirloom variety called "Beurre de Rocquencourt"). The beans were already escaping their "incubation" containers and needed transplanting into larger pots.

Transplanted heirloom beans waiting for their chance to climb

It was also a real pleasure to see the trees we had pruned start to bloom. We were so uncertain of our efforts (particularly with a Weeping Cherry tree which was badly damaged by Wisteria vines).

Our Apple blossoms are coming

We might just have saved this Weeping Cherry

I will leave you this week with pictures from around the house and barn. Somehow the Springtime blooms are adding quite a bit of cheerfulness to our rather dreary construction site.