Happy April, food & foraging friends!

Yes, I’m a happy April, because tomorrow’s my birthday!

Sometimes life gives you ramps; sometimes it gives you onion grass.  I was supposed to go ramp hunting with a friend this weekend, but ended up being one of a few cancelled plans, so I instead leaned in to what I’ve taken to calling poor woman’s ramps.

While ramps (Allium tricoccum, sometimes called wild leeks) are a native plant to be foraged sparingly, onion grass (Allium vineale, aka field garlic or crow garlic) is a lawn invader that can be eaten with abandon (including its tiny bulbs, chive-like leaves and, later in the season, a frizzy-haired flower that looks like it put its finger in a socket).

The two species look nothing alike, as ramps have two short, flat, wide leaves and the onion grass has hollow, tall and skinny leaves in bunches like chives. Yet they both share the common characteristic of all 1,000-something allium species, including commercial onions, garlic, chives and leeks: smelling oniony. No other plant will have and no allium will not have that distinctive aroma, so it’s what I call a tell. Here’s some research comparing the volatile oils of wild alliums, if you want to geek out on that.

While ramps have a mellow, complex flavor, onion grass, which is native to Europe, Middle East and North Africa, is pretty potently oniony with a slightly bitter aftertaste. In fact, the meat and dairy of cattle who have foraged it can pick up that garlicky flavor, rendering it tainted for commercial purposes (I wouldn’t mind a garlic-scented steak personally, but milk not so much).

I’ve processed onion grass several ways this week: compound butter, infused oil, and my favorite, onion powder, which is as simple as drying whole leaves simply using my oven light, then powdering it with a spice grinder. Each lends a beautiful, albeit different, shade of green. I also used it fresh in an okonomiyaki recipe (a Japanese cabbage pancake, which was for sale at the fabulous Japanese street festival this weekend). In past seasons I’ve also made Marie Viljoen‘s much recommended onion marmalade. I’ve got some goat cheese in the fridge and think I’ll use the remaining wild onion in this dip recipe to go on Marie’s mugwort crackers.

The medicinal properties of allium have been attributed to the abundance of sulfur-containing compounds, which have antifungal, antibacterial, antiparasitic, antiviral, and other bad-guy-fighting benefits. So go wild on that; your grandmother was right to tell you to eat raw garlic when you’re sick.

For a taste of rich man’s onions (see what I did there), check out my fellow forager friends’ restaurant Poplar this month. This week I had a fantastic hiramisu aguachile with a ramp marinade that Chef Iulian made from ramps, cucumber, unripe strawberries and jalapeno. Poplar has a grilled ramps with carrot romesco I understand will stay on the menu for a minute (usually the menu changes 100% every week).