In many places, the beech forests around our home abound with Allium ursinum, which seems to share most properties with A. tricoccum, including a common name, "Ram(p)s". A. ursinum is now commonly called "Bärlauch", "Bear's garlic" in Germany. At a time when, as a child, I didn't like onions or garlic, I had to pass through the forested hillside by bus from time to time, the road crossing a large population of A. ursinum. At flowering and when the leaves started to wilt, on warm and sunny days, the smell through the windows was almost unbearable, with two distinct versions of pungency - sweet and garlicky when flowering, leafmould and garlic when wilting. I now sometimes receive some pesto with foraged A. ursinum as a gift, and it's quite nice. It here came into fashion as a forager/health/super/you name it - food I would say 20 years ago, and being as densely populated as central Europe is, foraging had to be regulated almost immediately. The foraging hype died down quite a bit as it is widely available in ready-made products like pesto. Also, each and every year the local newspaper issue an article about it, and always warn about the potential danger of mistakenly collecting leaves of Convallaria (I dont know a single place where Convallaria grows in the Forests around here ...), which reduces foraging a lot. In my - limited - experience, it looses most of its flavor when cooked - i wonder if that's the same in A. tricoccum? I tried to grow A. tricoccum from seed some years ago out of curiosity to compare the two, but failed. After reading the wikipedia article about A. tricoccum again, I assume there is a culinary difference, as I don't know of any festivals celebrating A. ursinum. There is an image on wikipedia advertising "deep-fried butter-dipped ramps" ... I guess I will try growing it again. Nils --- in Bielefeld, Germany - sunny days ahead, Daffodils flowering, Anemone nemorosa emering in the forests. Dangerous time as I really want to plant and sow, but nights might still get freezing cold _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>