First Ramps Sighting, and In for the Long Haul
Front-runner crop pops up, and shopping like a tourist for anniversary dinner
Look What I Found!
Today (Saturday) was the finale for Green City Market’s off-season indoor location in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. As the winter’s storage crops and root vegetables were winnowing down over the past few weeks, I went without great expectations of new finds.
Well, knock me over with a feather. As I walked past the stand of Kajers Greens (North Judson, Indiana), I spied one of the surest signs that the outdoor growing season is upon us: the allium plant known as ramps have arrived.
Many Local Food Forum readers already know this, but it has to be said: the name Chicago derives from Chickagou, the American Indian word for these tasty, wild-growing plants. The word is varyingly translated as “wild onion” or “stinky onion,” and they grew in profusion when this was a swampy area occupied by Indigenous people.
Because they are normally foraged and have a relatively short growing season, ramps have long been sought after by chefs and home culinary artists. They are used much as you’d use other spring onions, but gain a bit of je ne sais quoi from growing in the wild (this quality is so elusive that some folks refer to ramps as wild garlic).
Barring extreme weather conditions, ramps should be widely available by the time Green City kicks off the region’s outdoor market season at its Lincoln Park flagship campus on Saturday, April 6.
Long-Distance Run for Anniversary Dinner Ingredients
To get exactly what I wanted for the 39th anniversary dinner I’ll be preparing for Barb and me on Sunday, there was no one-stop-shop. In fact, I covered quite a bit of ground to put it all together.
As the 1970s band 10cc sang, the things we do for love.
The first step was a cross-town ride down Belmont Avenue on the 77 bus to Green City Market’s indoor location. The photos above and below showed the busy scene for the winter market’s wrap-up.
My market haul (from left): Cremini and white mushrooms from River Valley Ranch (Burlington, Wisconsin); two bunches of ramps from Kajers Greens; young scallions from Jacobson Family Farms (Antioch, Illinois); carrots from Tomato Mountain (Brooklyn, Wisconsin); Yukon Gold potatoes from Nichols Farm and Orchard (Marengo, Illinois); two packages of extra firm tofu and a tofu dip from Phoenix Bean (Chicago); and a 4-pound ham roast from Finn’s Ranch (Buchanan, Michigan), which went into the home freezer for use at Easter.
The potatoes and scallions will be turned into another round of champ, a traditional Irish dish that I made last Sunday for our St. Patrick’s Day dinner. I’m sure I’ll find a way to fit in some of those ramps.
For my next stop, I doubled back on the 77 bus as far as Halsted St., then caught the 8 bus south to Fulton Market and Publican Quality Meats (PQM). Rob Levitt, the head butcher and chef, has been a friend since his days at The Butcher and Larder, which he started as an independent meat shop then moved it into the (now defunct) Local Foods grocery store; he left to take his role at PQM, which is part of the renowned One Off Hospitality Group.
The dry-aged strip steak from Slagel Family Farm (Fairbury, Illinois) in the middle will be center plate for our anniversary dinner. I also bought a Publican Quality Bread rye pullman loaf, which I was told is not often available, and head baker Greg Wade’s seeded crackers, which are best in class and worth a trip all by themselves.
I left there and walked a few blocks south to the West Loop Whole Foods Market. Men and women do not live by bread, aged beef and potatoes alone, and Whole Foods’ flourless chocolate cake has been a reliable special occasion dessert for years.
To wrap up, I caught the 20 bus eastbound to pick up the 146 express bus home to Lakeview. Overall, I traversed eight Chicago neighborhoods, saw Lake Michigan, the skyline, historic buildings, and the North Branch of the Chicago River.
I wonder if roaming the city for the food you want can be classified as agritourism. Maybe I should start a company to do tours.