Wander a little further into the woods and you’ll get a whole new display of edibles: spring beauties, sweet cicely, wild ginger, nettles, branch lettuce, and—if you have enough altitude—morels and ramps!
For seasoned readers of SML, here is where you can turn to the April/May issue of two years ago, and refer to the piece Stalking the Wild Asparagus…and Other Spring Edibles for an introduction to several wild friends. Building on this selection, let’s take a look at a few of their extra-pungent, delightfully bitter companions.
A woodland treasure
Crinkleroot (Cardamine diphylla), toothwort, crow’s foot, turkey foot, pepper root, Dentaria, American sweetheart …These are some of the various names that have been assigned to this woodland treasure. One of the few wild plants that you can find almost year-round—at least in Appalachian climes—the backside of the leaf triad is often a stunning deep purple, while the topside is a deep forest green. Being in the Brassicaceae family, the flavor is biting, cabbage-like, peppery, bitter, refreshing, like arugula but more-so.
I love to toss it in spring salads or use for garnish on early spring dishes. Younger leaves are of a more delicate texture, and the leaves that have weathered the winter will be almost leathery, but still delicious. You can also give it a quick sauté in olive oil or butter, toss it with pasta, or smother a freshly grilled steak with its bitter greenness.
Potato salad benefits especially from this peppery green, especially when augmented by ramps and violet flowers and wild mustard petals.
Serve it up raw
Just beginning to creep back over the rocks with confidence, after gully-washing spring rains, branch lettuce (Micranthes micranthidifolia)—also known as saxifrage, brook lettuce, bear lettuce, wild lettuce, and mountain lettuce—is a true spring tonic.
Of course, you can serve it up raw, mixed in with other spring greens, or as an addition to an egg salad sandwich, but most folks in the mountains prefer to fry it up in bacon grease with some chopped spring onions (or ramps) and a splash of vinegar for a version of “kilt (meaning killed, or wilted) lettuce.”
But first you have to find a “mess”, as a generous basketful is lovingly called. And that means traipsing up a holler, keeping your footing as you jump from stone to stone, until the stream you’ve been following becomes small enough to allow the roots of the lettuce to linger without being washed away with each deluge that may arise.
Once you’ve picked your heart’s desire, you may head back down the stream to the kitchen, or you can continue to head up the mountain with a picnic, into which you will tuck the delicate bitter greens, still pulsing vibrantly with life. As you munch on this piece of the mountains, you meld into the mountains themselves.
The Holy Grail
Perhaps Appalachia’s signature ingredient, ramps (Allium tricoccum or Allium burdickii, depending on where they are found)—also known as ramsons, or wild leeks—have been touted as the holy grail of wild edibles. Akin to garlic in flavor and heat, they taste like the woods, intensely green and earthy.
While much controversy abounds about how to harvest sustainably, if you have your own patch and it has had a few years to get going, you can eat with abandon, as this bulb is truly rampant in its growing power. If it makes you feel better, or if the patch is just getting on its legs, you can cut part way down the bulb with a sharp kitchen knife, leaving the root intact.
I simply harvest selectively, leaving more than I take, and thinning them out much as you would a thick clump of daffodil bulbs that need to be divided every so often in order to keep them flowering.
Once you get them to your kitchen, you’ll want to run cold water over them and remove the fleshy outer covering that encircles the bulb. If you have a lot of ramps a garden hose is the best tool to use, as the water pressure peels back this layer with no effort.
Eat the entire plant, both bulb and green, slicing finely and sautéing with eggs or potatoes, or all by themselves as a garnish to meats, soups, pasta, or salads. Pickle them and use them to garnish a bloody Mary, or eat along with a mess of green beans or collard greens. Try ramp bread, ramp quiche, ramp pesto and ramped-up deviled eggs.
The possibilities are endless.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Susi Gott Séguret, CCP, CSW, hails from the depths of Appalachia in Madison County, North Carolina, but honed her culinary skills in France, where she resided for over 20 years, earning a diploma in Gastronomy and Taste from the Cordon Bleu and the Université de Reims. Author of several cookbooks including Appalachian Appetite, and Cooking with Truffles, Susi orchestrates multiple sensory experiences including the Seasonal School of Culinary Arts, the Asheville Truffle Experience, and the Appalachian Culinary Experience. Passionate about elements of taste and style, and how they extend from our palate into our daily lives, Susi strives to blend food, music, words and images into a tapestry for the senses. For more details, visit quintessentialtable.com.