Ramp Kraut at Home! Plain Hosta Hill Sauerkraut with some ramps added in = delish
Hosta Hill’s Co-Founder Maddie Elling recently shared this no-fuss approach to making Ramp Kraut, a recipe that Hosta Hill used to make each season with wild-harvested ramps but which we discontinued out of concern from over-harvesting this special plant species.
For those who still crave the recipe at home, we wanted to offer up a simple approach for making your own ramp kraut with the request that you of course harvest mindfully.
See the full post from Maddie below!
———————————————————--
At Hosta Hill, we used to make a Ramp Kraut but stopped because we didn’t feel comfortable using a wild harvested plant in a commercial product. Since people still ask for it, I got to thinking how easy it would be to infuse some freshly harvested ramp greens into a jar of already made kraut, so I finally got around to trying it and it worked beautifully!
Here's what I did:
With clean hands I chopped about 1/2 cup of ramps greens, threw a whole 16 oz jar of sauerkraut into a wide mixing bowl, sprinkled the chopped greens over it and mixed it well with my hands. I packed it back into the jar, put a date on it and put it back on the fridge.
A week in the Ramp flavors are noticeable and delicious and it only gets better if you can let it go a little longer.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can use already made sauerkraut to produce a ‘Ramp Kraut’. There’s no need to ferment your own vegetables (though of course you can, if you want to).
Try this out ! Find yourself some consciously harvested ramp greens (or any in-season herbs, greens, or tender spring veggies) and incorporate into a jar of kraut. In times like these we gotta mix it up! Experiment! Enjoy! Have fun folks, share with us how it went by posting on instagram or sending an email at info@hostahill.com
Just a note on ramps!
Please be mindful when harvesting or sourcing ramps, they are a precious native plant and tend to get overharvested, depleted and their neighboring native plant friends trampled. If you want to read more into this issue, here's some information and musings from friend and herbalist Atalanta Sungurof.
Wild Pesto with Maddie
I’ve also been working with Flying Deer Nature Center this year and we recently produced a video on making Wild Pesto with wild greens like garlic mustard and nettles - which can also be used in the above recipe! Enjoy.