It's here. The text thread with my foraging friends has gone from quiet to unhinged because the ramps are up.

What I'm reading

• Ramps, and how not to destroy a patch — read this before you go. Cut one leaf, leave the bulb. A patch takes years to recover from a bulb-digger. Forager Chef has been beating this drum for a decade and he's right.
• United Plant Savers on ramp sustainability — ramps are at-risk in parts of their range from overharvest. Illinois isn't the worst of it, but the leaf-only ethic matters here too.
• Wild garlic mustard is the ramp you're allowed to obliterate — invasive, pull all you want, tastes great.

Field note

Caldwell Woods, north end, the slope above the river: a green haze of ramp leaves under the bare trees. I took maybe thirty leaves from a patch of thousands and felt the usual mix of joy and protectiveness. Tell people the spot, lose the spot. So: a slope, a river.

Single-leaf harvest. I will repeat this every April forever.

— Jenna