Everything old is new again: hello ramps

Yes, we live and work in cycles, dont' we? My favorite movie is Amacord (well, my favorite ITALIAN movie). It opens with the puffball flowers sending their spores into the air, and ends with that image as well. A year has gone by and a lot has happened. But ultimately, nature does what nature does, and what happened a year ago, happens again.
And here we are, with ramps. Last year, I wrote about ramps on April 11. And now, I got my ramps, man, and I am h appy. Yes I am. I spent part of the weekend making the ramp pesto (I wrote about it last year: go look it up). And it's GOOD. And also making my own riff on a California classic. I made ramp soup.
Ramps remind me, very much of young garlic, or, as we foodies call it "green garlic." This is the garlic that hasn't bulbed yet, and is still very soft and, well, green. And it's good. It is VERY good. We don't have enough of that in the east yet, although they are glorying in it in California (I hate them). But there I was, with a whole bunch of ramps, and began thinking "you know, the soup would probably work. " And it does.
Ramp soup, or g reen garlic soup, or any of the soups that rely on these early, more than slightly pungent greens, have a few things in common: fat - usually butter. It seems to be a very good pairing with them, way better than oil. Starch. Usually potatoes, although I would have loved to have tried this soup with pastina. And also, a few soup veggies. Usually, onions and celery.

Ramps can be expensive. You need a lot of them for this soup, but hey, this is sort of a Buddhist soup: it's transient. In about a month, you won't be able to make it anymore. So enjoy it whilst the moment is here.

You need between 3/4 and a pound of ramps. You will also need half a pound of potatoes. Either use the red boilers, or something like yukon golds. A stick of unsalted butter, please, and two onions, chopped.

The hardest thing you will do for this soup is prepare the ramps. They are dirty, and you'll have to wash them for a while to get all the crud off. And then you'll have to cut off the roots at the base. They're entangled, tough and not edible. Try to be patient and cut as close to where they join the plant as possible. Don't waste too much. Once you've got the roots cut off and the buggers cleaned, YET MORE WORK. Make a cut to separate the leaves from the white stems. You want to do this so that you can cook them properly. The stems take more time than the leaves. Once you've got two piles, cut them coarsely, but no bigger than bite size.

Now, let's make soup. Melt that stick of butter slowly. Then add the onions and some salt. You want to cook the onions until they are translucent, but no more. Add a few stalks of chopped celery if you like, but it's not necessary. After you do that, add the chopped ramp stems. Let them cook for a minute or two, and then add a quart of chicken stock. Add the leaves, and peeled, roughly chopped potatoes to this, and then let it simmer for about twenty minutes , or until the potatoes are soft.

And you know what, YOU ARE DONE. You may find the soup too strong, in which case, you can add some water to dilute it, but you don't have to.

This is a good, substantial soup. It will make you smile. And it's good for you too. It's bright green and it tells you "SPRING IS HERE!!!" And it is . The redbuds are in bloom, as is the forsythia, and the magnolias are just at the edge. The street pear trees are abloom, and I can hear the them from Amacord playing in my head.