Ramps and Chicken Stock

Maple Syrup and Pussy Willows, Ground flowers and Spring Peepers, Ramps and Morels, Fruit Blossoms, Rhubarb, and Asparagus, all come bursting out as if the Earth were as excited and impatient for signs of glorious life as we. Sometimes warm days bring things on a bit too soon, maybe this year. We don’t know yet what these two days of the hard freeze will do to the in-bloom fruit crop. But no matter what, there is so much new and beautiful life I sometimes tear up.

Guess what I had the other night for dinner? A ramp pizza! Yes, the ramps (wild leeks) are ready and we will be getting our first batch this week. Pat Smith of Kirklin Farms brought in some ramps just for the two of us, but this week they will be ready for a real harvest. We are gearing up for ramp pizza (my favorite use of ramps), ramp soup, ramp quiche, and ramp savory pastries. At home, put them in scrambled eggs, add them to butter, use them like garlicky, green onions. If it stays cool the ramps will be around for a few weeks, if it turns hot, they go pretty fast.

Besides being beautiful, ramps taste like a cross between garlic and leek and are considered very pungent. Native Americans used them for medicinal uses including a spring tonic.  In the indigenous Miami-Illinois language, the word for ramps is shikaakwa (chicagou) which grew in abundance near Lake Michigan. Hence the name — Chicago. See here.

 And we have started selling our chicken stock. We use quite a few whole chickens each week, and we brown all of the bones and skin, and other bits.  Then we add vegetable scraps and garlic and herbs and cook this in water for hours and hours.  It is so good. The connective tissue breaks down and forms a rich brown broth.  We filter it, but not too much, leaving in the good flavor bits. We do not salt it.  We use it in our soups and other cooking but we make too much so we are selling it when we have extra. It is deep brown and I love to drink it as is or with a tiny bit of salt. I use it at home, in almost any meat or soup recipe that calls for water. It is quite concentrated so you can dilute it to taste. It costs $6/16 oz.

We and other food businesses have been fortunate to have Feed the Fight Kalamazoo purchase over 9400 meals (about 150 from us) which they then "delivered free to healthcare workers and first responders. The purchases support local restaurants while providing nourishing meals and a morale boost to those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the general public has a chance to demonstrate their gratitude while observing social distancing." Check them out.

I know, emails are supposed to be short and to the point — but you know me.

Your exuberantly soaking up Spring baker,
Judy