Ramp diggers

Couple questions.
What i remember of doing it(many moons ago), it was a couple weeks before mushroom season, and we was always way up on the hillsides...
Last few years i tried to revisit my childhood and dig some, but the 2 patches that i knew of were gone, and despite my hiking through the hillsides, i came up with a butt-load of wild lily, and some killer mushroom tree's...wasnt a total loss but...

am i missing something? Should i be looking in the crick bottoms and lower elevations? I just remember climbing never ending hills following grandma up them, to dig up them stanky things...what i wouldnt give to have those few hours back.

any thoughts? Im south/central-eastern part of the state if that helps.

they are up here now in the bottoms by the river. i have never tried them that i remember.

I know this post is old but what was it your were digging?

Ramps are wild leeks or some consider them like a wild onion family member. If you lightly cook the leaves with butter they become sweeter than if you were to eat like a wild onion. Most diggers will leave the bulbs in the ground to grow again or like anything, you can over harvest and wipe them out. Found in the woods especially during mushroom season. Google them for a better explanation and pics of them and where to look for them also. :ThumbsUp

Thanks for the info. I've been hunting mushrooms all my life and never heard of these. I'll have to check them out. Merry Christmas!

When I was a very youngster, my grandmother would pick Polk, dandelion blooms and leaves of it, ramps, mushroom hunt with us, wild asperigus, fried pumpkin blooms, to name a few things from the wild or home grown. We have gotten away from the old ways (way more healthier) and now eat out of a box or can from a store or fast food it. I went back to ramps many years ago backpacking with some friends in the Smokies one spring, and they, being local, we ran across some ramps, picked them and feasted that evening after making camp, and renewed old memories. You can find ramps in Indiana for sure as well about anywhere in the moist bottom areas of the deeper woods that haven’t been cut over too badly in the spring.