Ramps in the Dumplings

 I have friends and relatives who generously give me perennials from their gardens. But I have to admit that I am really bad at a) labeling the plant and b) remembering what the heck it's called. Such was the case when a pot of little bulbs started to bloom with little white allium-like flowers. Then I was cleaning out my e-mails from months ago and I saw a note from my friend Robin saying she had left a pot of wild garlic or ramps on my doorstep. The light bulb went on. These are ramps! Cool! What the hell are ramps?

Well, it just so happens that a while back Peter was at a sound art conference in Toronto and he brought back some wild garlic at a farmer's market at some kind of art barns. He was just about to make pork dumplings for supper so I went out in the rain and picked some ramps for him. He was not happy about how mucky I and the ramps were, but he was otherwise delighted.

 Those dumplings were delicious. Our son gobbled down several helpings. There are lots of anecdotes that say eating ramps makes your breath heavily "perfumed". You have been warned. Actually, one of my sharpest childhood memories is going visiting with my dad and chatting with a Czech farmer near a patch of wild garlic. The sharp scent seared the image in my memory.

Peter's heading off to Belgium next week, but when he returns we've got to have ramps and spot prawns! Yee haw!