(For more compound butter like this “Compound Butter with Ramps from the Forest” be sure you have a copy of my cookbook, From France to the Farm.)
Confession.
I’m obsessed with my garden. It’s all I think about, all I care about right now, I roll over in the middle of the night mulling it over and over… early morning workouts at the gym are a thing of winter and soggy spring and I do miss my weightlifting, but these days you’ll hear my feet crunching on the pea gravel in my courtyard by six a.m. Hot coffee in hand, vision for my workday in mind.
I’m ravenous for the work. My hands ache and my shoulders are rebelling. It’s absolutely fabulous. After years of toiling in a rental garden, knowing that all this work MATTERS for the future aesthetic of this space keeps me constantly inspired.
My biggest, albeit selfish, struggle is feeding my family when I am in this heady, workaholic mode.
I adore my time in the kitchen and feeding them is my love language, but alas, the LAST thing I want to do is STOP and prepare lunch. It seems I’m just hitting my stride and my little people are hungry. I am too, but I could easily suffer through and work outside until dinner. (On a side note: It’s strange to me to call something so enjoyable “work”.)
It’s all about finding a rhythm. Not just finding a rhythm for my day and this new gardening schedule, but for my surroundings as well. Being one year on this gorgeous island, I find myself craving a true understanding of the timeline of nature in this place. The last snow, the final frost, morel season, lily of the valley, and ramps.
Ramps.
The forest floor is COVERED in them and the few clumps we gather go un-noticed. We’ve been harvesting them for our quickie, springtime in the garden lunches.
(Watch us harvest ours in this episode of Everyday Château and a huge thank you to all of you who JUST helped us hit 10,000 subscribers!)
What are ramps? Why wild garlic of course.
To the beginner, they look like the emergence of lily of the valley, but then you notice the purple stem and lack of flower. Ramp season is here.
In an answer to our daily lunch dilemma, we make a trip to the chicken coop for some farm fresh eggs, grab the crusty leftovers from Amélie’s daily bread and whip up some compound ramp butter. Fried egg on toast smothered in ramp butter?
Yes, please! Now I can go back to work!
Compound Butter with Ramps from the Forest
Foraging at it's finest
- 15 tbsp Kerry Gold Butter
- 1 tsp Sea salt
- 6 Ramps, trimmed (Bulb trimmed of roots. )
- 1 tsp Crushed black pepper
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Bring butter to room temp
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Trim ramps
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Pulse ramps in Cuisinart until average piece is 2-3 inches
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Add butter, salt and pepper to Cuisinart and mix until desired blend.
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Serve or wrap in wax paper and store in freezer.
What if I can’t find ramps? What can I use? Are ramps like wild chives that grow in my yard?
Yes chives make a very good substitution 🙂
Delicious! Thanks for sharing! xo
It is a glorious time of year in the garden! So glad to hear that you are enjoying yours. Enjoy!
I harvest plenty of ramps during early spring and have been looking for ways of preserving and preparing ramps. Thanks so much for sharing!