Exploring the many gifts of Wild Alliums in the context of Food Forest Design. This is Installment #42 of the Stacking Functions in the Garden, Food Forest and Medicine Cabinet series.
I have been enjoying Allium canadense I found growing in the drainage ditch in front of my house, and have transplanted a few of them into my back yard garden. The entire plant from roots to flowers are edible, and it smells and tastes like toasted garlic, or maybe a combination of onions and garlic. I harvest the above ground stems and few leaves and cut them up and dehydrate them and keep them in a mason jar to add as seasoning to various dishes. It grows a bulb on top of the stems that opens up into bulbils that are the seeds, and little stems grow from there to make the flowers. I made sure to drop several seeds when I picked several, and planted the seeds close to my compost pile. I already have a lot of soft neck garlic growing, from store bought garlic bulbs bought for cooking, I rarely harvest them, here in TX they will grow through the winter, and if not harvested start sending up new stem/leaves around the original, and if harvested after a couple of years, have strangely shaped huge bulbs with lots of cloves, but taste great. This year I'm drying a few of those and am replanting several cloves. The main reason for growing the garlic is to repel bugs from my gardens, I also grow a lot of dill too. I want find some wild onion, but no luck there yet.
Tried ramps for the first time a few days ago when we were getting maple syrup dregs. None on my property, hopefully I can change that, I know where there are lots of them. Tasty!
Also bought a gallon of unpastureized water buffalo milk a week ago. 7% fat, was it ever good! I'll be making butter and cheese out of that when I have a kitchen again. Water buffalo are lovely creatures, very big.
Sitting in my backhoe at the top of the hill, it has a flat, but I can get wifi here! No electricity yet, but soon. Then I'll post a long overdue article.
So glad you have tried the ramps, I only became familiar with them in the last few years myself (which is a testament to how rare they are up here in the part of Canada that is south of Detroit as I am walking around the few sections of forest that are left constantly here).
Water Buffalo milk, interesting. Well, I imagine water buffalo butter infused with ramps would be amazing.
I can send you some ramp seeds if you wanna try sowing them in a grove of old maples there I am sure they would take after a few years.
Those things are good! I can see cooking with them. Where we were there were hundreds of them. I was thinking of transplanting some. I have maple groves. I haven't looked at the back yet, maple trees back there. MNR says I could have 2200 taps. Still building roads but I'll take a walk back and see if there are any there.
I'm considering going on a motorcycle visiting tour when the bugs get bad, if they do. One stop would be Windsor.
I have been enjoying Allium canadense I found growing in the drainage ditch in front of my house, and have transplanted a few of them into my back yard garden. The entire plant from roots to flowers are edible, and it smells and tastes like toasted garlic, or maybe a combination of onions and garlic. I harvest the above ground stems and few leaves and cut them up and dehydrate them and keep them in a mason jar to add as seasoning to various dishes. It grows a bulb on top of the stems that opens up into bulbils that are the seeds, and little stems grow from there to make the flowers. I made sure to drop several seeds when I picked several, and planted the seeds close to my compost pile. I already have a lot of soft neck garlic growing, from store bought garlic bulbs bought for cooking, I rarely harvest them, here in TX they will grow through the winter, and if not harvested start sending up new stem/leaves around the original, and if harvested after a couple of years, have strangely shaped huge bulbs with lots of cloves, but taste great. This year I'm drying a few of those and am replanting several cloves. The main reason for growing the garlic is to repel bugs from my gardens, I also grow a lot of dill too. I want find some wild onion, but no luck there yet.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing that. I`ll trade you some seeds for ramps for some Allium canadense seeds if you like? :)
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Sounds great. You can email me gtaber@duck.com, and I'll give you my physical address.
Okay excellent I’ll send you an email so we can do a trade
Hey Gavin.
Tried ramps for the first time a few days ago when we were getting maple syrup dregs. None on my property, hopefully I can change that, I know where there are lots of them. Tasty!
Also bought a gallon of unpastureized water buffalo milk a week ago. 7% fat, was it ever good! I'll be making butter and cheese out of that when I have a kitchen again. Water buffalo are lovely creatures, very big.
Sitting in my backhoe at the top of the hill, it has a flat, but I can get wifi here! No electricity yet, but soon. Then I'll post a long overdue article.
Cheers!
Hey man! Great to hear from you.
So glad you have tried the ramps, I only became familiar with them in the last few years myself (which is a testament to how rare they are up here in the part of Canada that is south of Detroit as I am walking around the few sections of forest that are left constantly here).
Water Buffalo milk, interesting. Well, I imagine water buffalo butter infused with ramps would be amazing.
I can send you some ramp seeds if you wanna try sowing them in a grove of old maples there I am sure they would take after a few years.
Cheers.
Those things are good! I can see cooking with them. Where we were there were hundreds of them. I was thinking of transplanting some. I have maple groves. I haven't looked at the back yet, maple trees back there. MNR says I could have 2200 taps. Still building roads but I'll take a walk back and see if there are any there.
I'm considering going on a motorcycle visiting tour when the bugs get bad, if they do. One stop would be Windsor.
Ya man transplanting a few bulbs will speed up establishing them on your forest for sure. Glad you have access to some big healthy patches of ramps.
Oh cool, (about the tour) well let me know if you do and I’ll see if it’s possible to meet up
I found out where there are some just down the road. My apple tree is budding! I was dreading having to tell you I killed it. It was a rough winter.
Extraordinary post! Love your curiosity and knowledge base. Thank you for sharing it…!
Thanks Eve, I appreciate the kind words.