Pickled Ramps or Pickled Garlic... Decisions, Decisions.

I was lucky enough to find a field of ramps and then figure out what the H-E double hockey sticks to do with these ramps.  A ramp is a wild leek, for those who are wondering what they are.  So, I pickled some of them. YUMMMM--MEEEE!!!

Ramps aka Wild Leeks

And then lo and behold I have a friend who has a ridiculous amount of garlic.  She pondered, "What if you treated these multitudinous garlic the same way you treat a ramp?!?!?" Not an exact quote.  So, we did...

The jar on the left is garlic. The jar on the right are ramps.

As you can see they look basically the same! The only difference is the color of the pickling juice... But, in reality it's the same. The garlic jar is blue - skewing the color.   We were pleasantly surprised that they tasted decidedly different and both tasted great!  

Enough of the blathering -- here is the recipe:

Pickled Ramps -- Or Garlic!

(3 pint jars)

1 lb ramps (or garlic) -- cleaned and greens removed.

3 cups water

1 TB salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup cider or white vinegar (cider vinegar gives the ramps/garlic a nice color.)

1 TB dried herbs - whatever you want. I used mustard sees, black peppercorns, bay leaves, and cloves.

1. Heat water, salt, sugar and spices to boiling (approx five minutes.) Place ramps/garlic in boiling water mixture and cover tightly for five minutes.

2. After ramps/garlic are cooked, add vinegar.

3. Then put them in jars to can or in a jar to leave in the refrigerator. 

Water processing: bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes.  

Pressure cooking: 5 lb for 8 minutes.

I found a great book about ramps, if you want to know more:

Having Your Ramps by Glen Facemire, Jr.

I can't decide which I like better; pickled ramps or garlic. And I guess I don't have to choose. I should also note that I am super excited that I have already canned and dehydrated this year!! In normal times, that doesn't usually happen until say August/September.

Till next time...