While wild garlic was often used as a spice and as a medicinal plant, the knowledge of its use has been largely forgotten. Lovers of garlic and onions can use all parts of this vitamin rich plant in the kitchen. However Ramson is only available to harvest in a short period of the spring.
As soon as the snowdrops have finished blooming, the first juicy green leaves of wild garlic appear through the ground. Those who don't know Ramson need only to follow their noses: young plants in the new year smell softly of garlic, however once in flower they smell so sharply that it gives a burning sensation in the lungs.
Between March and May, the young nutrient rich wild garlic leaves are collected before the white blossom appears. They taste the best fresh and direct from harvest. The leaves can be cut into pieces and used raw for seasoning soups, salads and vegetable dishes, but also in pancakes or as a spread. Although once cooked wild garlic looses its flavour, it is still a nice alternative to spinach. The flowers and tubers are also edible, grated, sliced or whole they do not taste too strongly of garlic. Just the harvest period is short. In early summer the plant disappears only to grow in the same place the following year.
Ramson contains numerous sulphur containing substances which on one side provide the odour and on the other are responsible for its health promoting properties. They improve the flow of blood, can lower blood pressure and blood fat and inhibit the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms.