Wild Leeks, Wild Onions, Ramps | Pickled, Pesto & Sauteed

In this video I collect and turn wild leek, or ramps into pesto and pickle for long term storage. I also discuss identification, collection practises and conservation, locations in which to find them, seasonality, preparation and use. Wild Leeks Pickling Instructions - To pickle only use the white part of the leek. Wash well. - Make a brine solution including white wine vinegar, honey, kosher salt, chile pepper if desired, mustard seed, coriander seed and black pepper corns. - Bring brine to boil and let simmer for 5 minutes. - Fill a canning jar tightly leaving as little space as possible. It is not necessary to sterilize the jars at this point. Filling the jars tight will help reduce the chances that the bulbs will float to the surface rather than be completely pickled in the solution. - Allow 1/2 inch of headspace to ensure that they are fully covered by the brine. - Seal the jars with the lids. - Place the jars in a water bath and bring the water to boil. Let boil for 10 minutes to ensure that they are properly sterilized. - Wait at least a week for the flavours to permeate the leeks, however, waiting a month or more will produce a better overall flavour. - If the water bath is skipped, the leeks will keep for up to 3 months in the refrigerator. If they are sterilized, they will last up to a year unopened. Wild Leeks Pickling Ingredients - 1 Pound ramps (Allium tricoccum) - 1 cup water - 1 1/4 cups white wine vinegar or apple vinegar - 2 tablespoons honey - 1 tablespoon kosher or other non-iodized salts - 1 small hot chile pepper chopped or crushed (you can use fresh or dried) - 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds - 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds - 6 to 8 whole black peppercorns Wild Leek Pesto Instructions - To make wild leek pesto blend leaves, olive oil, cashews or sunflower seeds, and salt. - I would recommend that the sunflower seeds be blended first, before adding the other ingredients to ensure they blend well, but if you have a powerful blender you may find that this is not necessary. - Blend until smooth. - Serve on toast, sandwiches, or pasta. Wild Leek Pesto Ingredients - 2 cups packed wild leek leaves - ¼ cup olive oil - ½ cup cashews or sunflower seeds - sea salt to taste Information on Wild Leeks or Ramps Wild Leeks - Wild leeks, ramps, or wild onions, are well known. - In fact, covering them might feel redundant, yet they are so easy to collect and use, ignoring this valuable wild edible resource is ill fitting on a channel that focuses on living off the land. - Few wild foods come ready to consume like leeks. - In this video, I share collection and preservation of the wild leek through pickling. I also present two ways to prepare the leek through a pesto and simply sauteing. - If nothing else, you will enjoy a late spring afternoon outdoors with my son and I. - Wild leeks form clumps. The underground bulbs pack tightly together, often being attached to one another. - Each plant has 2 or 3 leaves about 8-12 inches long. They look very much like the leaves of lilies. - Ramp bulbs are white and teardrop shaped. Their smell is unmistakably garlic and onion-like. - Leeks can be found from Northern Minnesota across Southern Ontario to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick south to the Appalachians to Tennessee and Georgia and west to Missouri and Iowa. - Leeks prefer moist, rich soil that is typical of hardwoods such as sugar maple, beech, basswood, yellow birch and elm. - Leeks appear in spring and begin to die back in early summer soon after they have been shaded out by taller trees. - Not only are the bulbs edible, but so too are the leaves, so please don t discard them or let them go to waste. Use the whole plant. - Harvest leeks as the leaves attain about 2/3 their full size, which happens mid-spring. If you harvest too early, you will find that the bulbs have not reached their potential. However, leeks are good to harvest anytime the leaves are still green. - By recognising the seed head, it is possible to harvest leeks in the off-season of the summer and fall. At this time, the bulbs will still be holding all the plants as it prepares for next spring. - Be very careful when harvesting leeks as they are susceptible to over harvest. Avoid clearing out full patches, instead select a few bulbs from a bunch of different clumps. This will allow the founder plant to continue to spread out in all directions. - Where possible, clean leeks in a stream or lake as this will reduce your footprint and keep waste and soil where it belongs. - Remove the outer thin sheath covering the bulb. The result is a clean, white, bulb that is ready for consumption. - Leaks can be used in a variety of ways including raw in salads, or sandwiches or as a cooked addition to any dish calling for onion or garlic. - Leaks can also be dried after being thinly sliced, blanched and frozen, or pressure canned.