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Ramps
Wed Jun 09, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. In parts of the Southern Appalachians,
spring doesn’t officially arrive until people convene to dig and eat wild leeks called
"ramps." Leda Hartman reports from a "Ramp Convention" in North Carolina.
LH: Every year in May, the Ramp Convention in Waynesville draws hundreds of
mountain people who get together just to celebrate the ramp. Why do people celebrate
the ramp?
DW: Why not? They’re good. Everybody likes ‘em.
LH: Dick Woody is 67. He grew up in Cataloochee, a secluded mountain community
near Waynesville. Like everyone else around here at the time, his family homesteaded
… raising everything they ate. Woody says after a winter diet of salt pork and canned
produce, eating fresh greens like ramps was a treat, and meant the isolation of winter
was finally over.
DW: You didn’t do a whole lot of socializing in wintertime -- stayed around home, fed
your livestock, cut your wood for heating …
LH: And so the Ramp Convention…
DW: That was the first big event of the year for ‘em. Spring is here and now let’s go eat
ramps.
LH: It may be hard to believe, but not everyone is a fan of the ramp. A ramp looks like a
cross between a scallion and a leek. And it tastes like a cross between garlic and an
onion… with a musty aftertaste and an odor that lingers. But ramps are a spring tonic.
They’re said to be high in Vitamin C and to lower cholesterol.
DW: And you know what they say about ramps -- it prevents colds. If you eat ramps and
you have a cold, nobody’ll get close enough to you to catch it.
LH: For The Weather Notebook, I’m Leda Hartman in Waynesville, N.C.
The Weather Notebook is generously supported by the National Science Foundation
and Subaru: Driven by What’s Inside.
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