Culture | World in a dish

A hunt for ramps exemplifies the pleasures of foraging for dinner

The springtime shoots are a reminder to enjoy fleeting pleasures while you can

A bunch of ramps which are a wild onion that grow during the spring in Eastern Canada and the U.S. TheyÕre sometimes referred to as wild leeks, and taste like a balanced mixture of garlic and onion. TheyÕre pungent, to say the very least.

May 4th 2023|SOMEWHERE WITHIN 180 MILES OF MANHATTAN

THE SKY looked like the top half of a landscape painting by J.M.W. Turner—cerulean, cloud-dappled and shifting in a light wind. The first pale blossoms were just emerging on the otherwise bare branches of trees; hordes of mayflies flew kamikaze missions into eyes and mouths, delirious after months of winter. For some discerning humans, the real attraction of the spring’s first warm weekend in the American north-east lay not in the air above them, but on the ground: pairs or trios of slim, elegantly tapered dark green oval leaves that sprang up from forest floors all over the eastern United States.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Finders, keepers”