Ramps are a prized onion in this area. A friend gave me some, and I planted the small ones. Last year I found a new patch that appeared on its own. They have a very strong taste, but are delicious in meatloaf after they’ve been sauted, as well as in many other recipes. I had never heard of them until I moved here. These pungent plants are even honored with a Ramp Festival in this town.
We are not the only mountain town to have a Ramp Festival, as is evident in this web site:
http://www.richwooders.com/ramp/ramps.htm
My ramps are now inundated with hostas. Every year I dig out some, but numerous ramps appear first. I also pull English Ivy away from them. I also try to transplant some to new places each year. Some are even traveling to Missouri this year.
I’ll watch very closely this year to see if I can see my ramps send up seeds. They certainly multiply and spread, but I’ve never seen what this site shows.
http://wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Ramp.html
You can see that each ramp also multiplies from the bulb.
Want to cook with ramps?
This site offers some recipes using ramps:
http://southernfood.about.com/cs/ramps/a/ramps.htm
Even my favorite recipe site, Epicurious, has ramp recipes.
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=onion+ramps