"ramps" news and stories

• Foods like fiddlehead ferns and ramps may be farmers market favorites, but too much foraging carries a big environmental price tag.
• Japadog is a Vancouver street food experience created to transcend the city's strict street vendor laws.
• Some suggestions for making a charcuterie platter for home entertainment.
• Globe wine expert Beppi Crosariol hunts down trendy bottles of wine for the younger generation.
• Don't soil the soil: That stuff in the garden is a lot more than just dirt. According to one gardener, it's "the critical backbone of the garden."
• A look at Romelia, a richly flavored mixed-rind goat's milk cheese.
• Poached eggs, stir-fried shrimp and cheese are even better when paired with asparagus.
  
• Mark Bittman's Flexitarian diet encourages folks to avoid animal products, processed foods and simple carbs before 6 p.m.
• How to make a Thai Rye, a tasty cocktail that won even Jean-Georges' stamp of approval.
• Raw seal heart is a traditional Inuit food -- and is also known as "the caviar of the north."
• Take matcha out of the tea cup with a recipe for Strawberries with Jellilfied Matcha.

• What signals spring to foodies and locavores in Toronto? Ramps, which are also known as wild leeks.
• The keys to a good rice and peas unlock a classic Jamaican tradition.
• How do you get lunch at work while helping the environment? Bike Deli has the answer.
• Chef Lynn Crawford cooks for the Salute Wine Festival to raise money for one of Toronto's hospitals.
• Five great wine bargains, including four for under $20. Standouts include a 2006 Niagara College Teaching Winery Unoaked Chardonnay and the 2007 Domaine Saint Prix Bourgogne Aligoté.
• Recipes: Carne Asada, Chocolate Mayo Cake, Tuscan Beans with Tomatoes, Garlic and Sage and Ginger Pork Lettuce Wraps.
  

I'm on my way home with an overstuffed grocery bag in my lap. A smell that's a cross between fresh chives and garlic is filling the cab and I'm hoping the driver won't kick me out before we reach my front door.

The odor is coming from a large bunch of fresh ramps, also known as spring onions or wild leek. They're a wild-growing member of the onion family, foraged from woods across the U.S. and Canada, and they're in season right now.

The annual events at which they're celebrated are often called "Stinkfest" for good reason. These little guys might not be ideal for a romantic dinner menu for two, but they sure do pack plenty of flavor into this fresh pasta dish that I just created, and they go beautifully with other seasonal Spring veggies like asparagus and peas as well as thinly sliced prosciutto and fresh fettuccine.

Spring vegetables are tender, bright green and full of vitamins C and K and essential minerals like folate and maganese that do everything from combating cancer and protecting your heart to fighting wrinkles. Liven up your dinner table with up some spring freshness of your own in less than 15 minutes – it's so simple.

Get the Primavera Pasta recipe after the jump.

For reasons I've yet to understand (perhaps in recompense for my obsessive heirloom veggie gardening), the food fates smiled upon me today. I reached into the crisper drawer for a bunch of scallions, and instead drew out (gasp!) ramps -- still viable, even though my last foraging adventure was several weeks ago, and ramp season is gone, daddy gone. They weren't 100% cook 'em up and eat 'em with nothing else fresh, though, so I hedged my bets and went with a fave of mine -- ramp pesto. Should you not be similarly gifted by the veggie gods, garlic scapes work well, too.

With the opening of an exhibition about the tools used for eating at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Julia Moskin asks are we really afraid of flatware? (Of course not. We’re just saving it for a special occasion!)

The message to eat local, organic and avoid processed foods is at the core of a Berkeley nutrition professor's book What to Eat, which tells you how to shop for groceries and select the most nutritious foods.

An oyster zealot shares his passion along with the history and flavors of the oyster in the Northwest.

Foraging for wild plants in the woods is what really gets some chefs heated up in spring, though the seasonal ramps, ferns and bitter greens are not always the easiest sell to diners.

The minimalist, Mark Bittman, does a video preparation of grilled lamb with miso-chili sauce at the NY Times website.

Frank Bruni dines at August and gives it two stars.

[Image NYT]

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