Into the woods for harvesting wild leeks

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Into the woods for harvesting wild leeks

Diane Doiron
Apr 24, 2012 – 1:05 PM ET
| Last Updated: Apr 24, 2012 1:15 PM ET

Diane Doiron

Jessie, one of our guests, gets comfortable as she cuts wild leek shoots. This spring plant has a wonderful onion taste and many names, such as spring onion, ramson, ramp, wood leek and wild garlic.

It’s a food forager’s delight watching green wild leeks blanket the forest floor — they are not hard to spot! After the snow has melted on our 100 acres of land and left us with the composting leaves, green shoots smelling of onion and garlic push through in search of the warm spring sun.

Diane Doiron

Foraging tip: We cut only the shoots and leave the bulbs in place for next year’s growth.

From the onion family, “Allium tricoccum,” these beauties have many names, including ramps, wild leeks, spring onions; they are among the first plants to come up in the spring, easy to spot and harvest for dinner, and for pickling and preserving.

Diane Doiron

Happy pickers, left to right, Marcin, Leah and Jessie. We had 2.5 kilos of leeks in less than a half hour.

Our three visitors and I each grab a grocery bag and some scissors and head down the road for foraging. Wild leeks have become so popular in Canada that they are actually becoming over harvested in Quebec with the same problematic trend starting to happen in Ontario. A wise word to all you foodies, only take what you can eat for yourself and for preserving, and please don’t take the whole plant. Cutting the shoots alone can be enough, leaving the bulb in the ground for another season’s growth. We only harvest where the plants are abundant and we pick individual plants within bunches. The task is a little tedious but this leaves the plants strong for the following year.

Diane Doiron

Layers of wild leeks are put on trays for drying. They will be stored in airtight containers and used as an onion substitute in recipes.

Just 15 minutes later, the air around us is a pungent mix of garlic and onion. Our bags are filled and when we get back to the house, we weigh them and are amazed that we have harvested 2.5 kilos in no time at all.

Diane Doiron

We blanch the wild leeks before putting them in jars with brine.

We spend the rest of the day preserving this gift from nature. A kilo is used for a pickling recipe that I wanted to try for pickled ramps with garlic and red chili flakes — a wonderful condiment for fresh fish, I’m betting — from my new favourite preserving book by chef Paul Virant, The Preservation Kitchen.

We also spread out about half a kilo on mats and placed them by the wood stove to dry for future use as an onion substitute for soups. We chopped and froze the remainder for later use in recipes.

Diane Doiron

A jar of pickled wild leeks with garlic and red chili flakes that I will use as a condiment with fresh fish.

The trend of wildcrafting or foraging is very popular these days. There is nothing better than to head out for a few hours for a walk in the woods and see what can be found, including edible mushrooms. Part of my plan as a self-sustainable homesteader is to be able to find other foods within our 100 acres that will not add to the carbon footprint of the farm.

Head to the woods yourself for a hike this spring, but make sure to tread lightly, our forests are so fragile.

Get the latest updates from Magnificent Hill farm on Twitter @maghill

http://twitter.com/#!/maghill

Posted in: Homes
Tags: Farming, Magnificent Hill, pickling, wild leeks

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