Wild Bites #48: a 4-minute read that makes you smarter about wild food and tells you what's to come on the website, podcast, YouTube, or To The Bone.

 ~ Hank

1. What's Hot Now

Oldie but goodie: Venison stroganoff. 

2. On a Ramp-age

Ramps growing in Wisconsin this spring.

Ah, ramps. Everyone's favorite spring green. So much so that it has spawned a tribe of "ramp shamers" who, when they see anyone harvesting whole ramps, as in, with the bulb, they gear up for a hate fest. While they are not 100 percent wrong, you absolutely can harvest whole ramps sustainably, and people have been doing it since, well, forever. 

I wrote about how to sustainably harvest not only ramps, but any wild onion, in this article over at To the Bone. It's really not rocket science, but there are a few rules to follow.

OK, ramp rant over. Here are some of my favorite ramp (wild onion) recipes:

• Ramp risotto rawks. Period. It's an absolutely perfect use for wild onions, even if you only harvest the leaves. 
• Once the foliage starts to die down, you'll want to dig some bulbs to make pickled ramps. One of my favorite pickled things to serve with cheese, bread and cured meats.  Another great way to preserve ramps is to make wild onion kimchi.
• I originally designed my recipe for Chinese scallion pancakes for Western three-cornered leeks, but they work great with scallions, chives or any wild onion. These are so, so good! 
• Ramp pesto is amazing, too. Really great with fresh pasta, mixed into minestrone, over bread, or grits. 
• Finally, if you just want something super simple, chop up your wild onions and add them to buttery, creamy mashed potatoes, like Irish champ. 

3. Stir Fry Fiesta

Spring is a perfect time to break out the wok, or whatever large pan you have, and make some stir fry. Stir fries are easy, quick and endlessly versatile. Here are a few of my favorites to whet your appetite:

• Fiddlehead stir fry with pork. Springtime is fiddlehead season, and they are fantastic lightly cooked in this Cantonese-style stir fry. 
• This venison stir fry is a basic one you can use as a master recipe for all meat stir fries. You'll need backstrap or other clean, tender meat for this one.
• Yunan in southern China is home to this mushroom stir fry, which works with most mushrooms. I like using spring porcini or butter boletes, but basically any shroom you want works here. 
• Another easy stir fry that features pork is an asparagus stir fry. Super simple and so perfect for springtime. 
• Finally, use this master recipe for any fish stir fry you feel like making. But if you ask me? This sweet and sour stir-fried fish is the ultimate. Try it: You will not be sad. 

4. El Paso, a Hidden Food Gem

5. Greening 

Spring is roaring in here in Minnesota, and I've been scratching the itch to grow things. FINALLY. I'd been working on the inside of my new home in St. Paul since November, and now it's finally time to make the outside more, well, me. 

That means growing edible things. I bought a bunch of currant bushes, something I've always wanted to grow. They'll go in in place of some peonies, which, while pretty, aren't my thing. I also got tons of starts for bee balm (monarda), echinacea and prairie coreopsis. No, you can't eat coreopsis, but I love those flowers. 

Soon I'll not only have some swanky raised beds for vegetables, but I'm also planning on nuking my front lawn and replacing it with a Minnesota prairie full of flowers and edible plants, like Jerusalem artichokes, which, despite the name, are native to the Midwest, as well as prairie turnips and American groundnuts. 

My garden will be very, very different from the one I had in Sacramento, but I hope just as good. And as a hat tip to my old life, I bought a chile pequin plant and some Mexican oregano that I'll keep in pots. A guy's gotta have his pequins, after all. 

Up next, I am headed back to Texas, this time to Brownsville and Matamoros, Tamaulipas. If you have any food recommendations for the Rio Grande Valley, I'm all ears. 

~ Hank

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