Pickled Ramps

Around this time last year Jay, Skippie, Scott, and I went on an day long fishing trip, one thing you'll learn and I think I even stated in "On the Water: March 19, 2011" is that whenever you go fishing with Skippie, you never go hungry. This lunch was nothing out of the ordinary (Deer steak, potato packets, and corn), but there was a treat this time, freshly pickled ramps. I swore after having those that day I would start making my own once I started canning. This past summer was the first attempt at canning, so you can only guess what that means. I recently went on a trip and picked a five gallon bucket of ramps for friends, family, and myself. I froze some, made some potatoes and ramps, and even attempted to pickled them. I haven't had any experience with them, so I did want anyone would do, I googled how to pickle ramps and none other than Martha Stewart had a recipe for it, so I tried it.

Pickled Ramps

Ingredients

• 1 cup white-wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• Pinch of crushed red-pepper flakes
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 10 ounces ramps, trimmed and rinsed well

Directions

Stir together vinegar, sugar, salt, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, peppercorns, red-pepper flakes, thyme, and 2 cups water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add ramps; return to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat, and let cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours. Pickled ramps can be refrigerated in their liquid in an airtight container up to 1 month.