Ramping up: Excitement abounds for West Virginia ramp & morel harvesting season

“Ramps are well-known in West Virginia as a pungent wild leek,” said Alexandra Mathias, Grant County’s WVU Extension agent. “They are some of the first wild greens that sprout in the forest in the spring.”

Ramps are similar to a green onion, Mathias said.

“A ramp is a wild allium, kind of a mix between a garlic and an onion,” she said. “A little less intense than an onion. It is similar to a green onion, I would say in that regard, but it does have more of a garlicky flavor than some.”

Every part of a ramp, from bulb to leaf, is edible, Mathias said.

Ramps can be found on forested, sloped, woody areas at higher elevations.

“Ramps tend to like 2,000 feet and above elevation,” Mathias said.

Morels sprout shortly after ramps. They are edible fruiting mushrooms.

“Morels can grow pretty large, as big as your hand,” Mathias said. “But typically you will find them about the size of your pointer finger. You may find some that have a long stem and small part of the mushroom or a larger meaty part of the mushroom.”

Foragers are advised to be cautious when harvesting mushrooms.

“There are often many look-a-likes and false morels do exist,” Mathias said. “The actual morel is usually more cone-shaped. Both have a brown top and a light brown stem.”

Mathias recommends using a visual guidebook to double check each mushroom or search for morels with a knowledgable forager.

One should never eat a raw mushroom, Mathias said, always cook them.

The high demand for ramps has raised concerns about overharvesting.

Morel forging is best after a mix of rain and warm weather, Mathias said.

“Morels tend to be more temperature sensitive,” she said. “They like 60 degrees or higher and rain and that goes universally with mushrooms as they pop up after rainfall.”

Morels are more universal than ramps, Mathias said, and can be found in front yards.

“Morels like a disturbed soil in the forest or in a yard,” she said. “They are a little harder to find because you typically find them in small batches.”

The most traditional way to eat ramps and morels is sautéed in butter.

Ramps are commonly cooked with bacon and potatoes, and can replace other aromatics, like onion or garlic in a recipe, Mathias said.

Morels are often dipped in a batter and panned fried, Mathias added.

“You can eat them as a vegetable side or put them with a steak or in pastas,” she said.

“Some estimates indicate that $15 million in ramps are sold each year in just a few weeks,” according to Brian Sparks, WVU Extension agent, agriculture and natural resources, Nicholas and Fayette counties.

“The local and commercial increases in demand, coupled with the fact that the plants are slow-growing, put them in danger of being overharvested in some areas. Ramps can take up to seven years to grow to maturity from a seed,” he said.

Often, people harvest the whole ramp plant, digging up the roots as well, Mathias said.

“People are sometimes harvesting a whole area or patch of ramps or most of a patch and when they dig those up they are not coming back because they’ve taken the whole root,” she said.

The best recommendation is to cut the ramps rather than digging the bulb, Mathias said.

“You just cut it at the leaf stem. It is a leaf harvest but still has a lot of the ramp flavor and is much more sustainable for the plant allowing them to come back the following year,” she said.

On the other hand, morels cannot be overharvested.

“For mushrooms, they are a fruiting body, so even if you harvested all the morels in the area, that is just the fruit so you are just harvesting that and they will come right back,” Mathias said.