Foraged Ramps appears as a signature dish in 1 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Foraged ramps · Asheville
Wild Appalachian leeks foraged from the WNC mountain forests in April and May. Used in pickles, butters, salsa verde, frittatas and shaved raw over Italian.
Ramps grow in the rich, shaded mountain forests of the Southern Appalachians from late March through May. Cherokee communities have used ramps medicinally and for cooking for centuries; Scots-Irish settlers adopted them as the first green of spring. The annual Cosby Ramp Festival in Tennessee (1954) and the WNC ramp festivals at Waynesville and Cosby anchor the regional spring celebration. Asheville chefs work ramps hard in their short window: The Market Place pickles them for year-round use, Rhubarb runs ramp butter on biscuits, Crusco shaves them raw over hand-cut pastas. Overforaging has become a conservation concern; ethical foragers leave the bulbs and take only leaves.
Where to eat in Asheville:
- The Market Place
- Rhubarb
- Crusco
- Cúrate