wild garlic-what do you like to use it for? [General]

2011 Jun 2
Have been enjoying wild garlic for the last couple of weeks in omelettes mostly, and thought it would be good to ask what others are using it for. In the states they call them "ramps" and we used this biscuit recipe last year. It is one of my all time favorites, and hope to do some again this weekend. Don't forget to make the accompanying ramp butter. And last year we made extra and froze them, individually tightly wrapped in foil, and they held up pretty well.
www.earthydelightsblog.com

2011 Jun 2
One of my favourite things to do is also one of the easiest: I sauté lardons, reserve them, then slice the bulbs and cook those in the bacon fat. Mix the lardons back in, and enjoy heaven.

2011 Jun 3
Last night I made a pasta dish with them. I slow cooked the sliced wild garlic bulbs in some olive oil for 30 minutes (also added a little chicken stock to help the cooking). I tossed it with some pasta, a little white truffle oil and some portabello mushrooms (which were sauteed separately in olive oil). I didn't want to caramelize the wild garlic and change the flavour. The flavour of garlic was mild and permeated the pasta nicely. Topped it with some grilled chicken and fresh home grown green onions. YUM! I wish they were available all year long.

2011 Jun 4
There is quite a lot of it growing near my house. I try to leave it alone, because it grows very slowly (just a brief period in the spring when it's still cold and the leaves on the trees have not come in yet). But it does taste great.

There was a news article recently about 3 wild garlic poachers. The police came and one of them paid a homeowner $20 to hide in his house. The police nabbed the other two and went to the house saying they thought he might be hiding nearby. The homeowner said, "actually he is in my house, he paid me $20 to hide there" so they went in and got him. But the guy kept the $20.

2011 Jun 5
So,
you are not allowed to pick wild garlic?
or can you only pick it if it is on your property??

2011 Jun 5
I've been picking a couple of bulbs (literally, one or two which I just wipe off and eat raw) each spring on my own property. I know picking it is banned in Gatineau Park. According to this Ottawa Citizen article, possession of more than 50 bulbs will get you a fine, because it's classified an endangered species.

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Quote:

www.ottawacitizen.com

The Quebec government declared wild garlic an endangered species in 1995. Anyone caught with more than 50 bulbs faces a fine of between $500 and $20,000. Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and Wildlife investigators have charged 24 Outaouais pickers with violating the province’s endangered species law so far. this year. Investigators have seized a total of 18,500 bulbs.

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Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org

In Canada, ramps are considered rare delicacies. Since the growth of ramps is not as widespread as in Appalachia and because of destructive human practices, ramps are a threatened species in Quebec.

Allium tricoccum is a protected species under Quebec legislation. A person may have ramps in his or her possession outside the plant's natural environment, or may harvest it for the purposes of personal consumption in an annual quantity not exceeding 200 grams of any of its parts or a maximum of 50 bulbs or 50 plants, provided that those activities do not take place in a park within the meaning of the National Parks Act. The protected status also prohibits any commercial transactions of ramps; this prevents restaurants from serving ramps as is done in the United States. Failure to comply with these laws is punishable by a fine.[13] However, the law does not always stop poachers, who find a ready market across the border in Ontario (especially in the Ottawa area), where ramps may be legally harvested and sold.[14]


2011 Jun 5
So are we then to assume that the vendors on the byward market who present racks upon racks of ramp bulbs are not harvesting sustainably? When I was there yesterday, there were way more than 50 bulbs available...and they are not inexpensive. A 250 ml jar of fresh bulbs (no leaves) was $10.

2011 Jun 5
I don't know how that garlic gets there. I read somewhere that wild garlic was wiped out in Manitoba by over harvesting. I also note the environment doesn't respect political boundaries like the border between provinces. If it's endangered in Quebec can it be the opposite in Ontario just across the border? Well maybe. And there are lots of trilliums growing in the woods behind my house as well. Way more than I ever saw in anywhere in Ontario . . .

Actually if it's being poached in Quebec, it must be more plentiful in Quebec, or the poachers would simply go over to the Ontario side to pick it. An hour of picking is an hour of picking whereever it's done . . . so it's better to do it where the garlic is thick. And with the large fines it's even a lot more risky to pick it in Quebec than Ontario. So the only reason it is being done at all in Quebec must be because it's more plentiful on the Quebec side, the side where it's designated endangered.

Wild garlic grows very slowly because it lives on the forest floor and gets very little light (energy for photosynthesis) most of the year. Its only real chance to grow is in the spring, after the snow melts, but before the leaves have come in on the surrounding trees. The sunlight reaches the forest floor and the garlic soaks it up.

It's actually quite shocking to see so many plants laid out on tables for sale. But who knows? They may be imported from the US or perhaps they were farmed . . . or they may have been poached. :-) Friends who live in Chelsea say they see people going into Gatineau Park early in the morning to pick. Would I risk a fine and jail time to pick a jar of bulbs to sell for $10? Well I could probably pick a jar like that in less than 2 minutes if I found a good patch. So maybe up to $300 / hr, minus the gas, and minus the costs of setting up a vendor's stall. It's incentive enough for some . . .