Remember Euell Gibbons, spokesman for Grape Nuts cereal and author of books such as "Stalking the Wild Asparagus"? Gibbons also stalked other wild foods, such as molly moochers (gourmets know them as the highly prized morel mushrooms) and ramps, the very pungent green that is a relative of the onion.

Ramps, allium tricoccum, are wild leeks. Thriving throughout the Appalachian range in rich, dark woodlands near mountain streams, ramps are among the first edible foods to appear in the early spring, when they pierce the gray and brown leaf mold with a spire of tightly furled, onion-scented leaves. Throughtout the Appalachian South, ramps are hailed with feasting at ramp suppers and festivals. The most famous of these community fundraisers include the Ramp Festival at Cosby, Tenn., and the Feast of the Ramson in Richwood, W. Va., home of the National Ramp Association.

Ramps are the stuff of lore. An aphorism says, "Ramps are not for ladies or those who court them," and in "The Easter Onion," a poem by Johnny Russell, the ramp season is romantically remembered. Here is the first stanza: "Years gone by, still they gather/Tribute to a heritage, gloried past/Easter onions, in Appalachia called ramps/Family, friends, people from far and wide."