Ramson: use, beneficial properties and growing in the garden

In early spring, as soon as the snow falls, along the banks of rivers and lakes, young green leaves appear on the edges of the forests. The shape of the leaves resembles a lily of the valley, and to taste - real garlic. This is a natural pharmacy for people and animals - wild leek.

What is wild leek

Ramson, also known as bear onions, wild garlic or kalba, is a herbaceous perennial of the amaryllis family, a genus of onions. As soon as the snow melts, its young leaves and arrows appear. Awakened, depleted during the winter bears with pleasure eat juicy greens, restoring strength after hibernation. Hence the name - bear bow.

Young wild garlic appears in early spring

Wild garlic develops from an elongated thin bulb, not thicker than 1 cm. The stalk is trihedral, from 15 to 40 cm, and often up to 50 cm tall. Long and thin petioles bear oblong lanceolate leaves resembling lily of the valley in shape.

Leaves on thin stalks appear from wild bulbs

In late May or early June - during flowering - the stem releases a hemispherical umbrella with small white flowers in the form of stars. Flowering ends with the appearance of seeds - black small peas.

Blooming wild garlic ends with the appearance of seeds

Wild garlic tastes and smells like garlic. That is why cattle are not advised to graze in the places where bear onions grow. The milk and meat of animals that consumed wild garlic gain an unpleasant taste and unusual color.

Places of growth

Wild leek is growing everywhere in Europe, the Caucasus and most of our country. It can be found on the shady banks of rivers and lakes, as well as in the forests of Transbaikalia and Siberia, right up to the tundra. Very often, a bear's bow forms whole glades, which are fabulously beautiful during flowering.

Blooming wild garlic forms beautiful glades

In many regions of Russia wild garlic is listed in the Red Book.

Wild garlic must be harvested in early spring, before the onset of heat. The greenery of this plant is the most nutritious and delicious at this time. A little later, when the air temperature rises above 18 ° C, the leaves of wild garlic coarsen and become inedible.

Using wild garlic

For food, wild garlic is used as spicy greens, and all parts of the plant go to business - both leaves, and arrows, and onion. Fresh it is added to salads and okroshka, but it is good in hot dishes. Soups and all kinds of sauces are prepared from wild garlic in the Caucasus, stewed with vegetables in Siberia, and in Germany this is a great filling for pies.

Sandwiches with wild garlic - a very quick, tasty and healthy breakfast.

Sandwich paste

For the filling you will need:

• 150 g of hard cheese;
• 3 hard boiled eggs;
• a small bunch of wild garlic;
• 2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise;
• salt and pepper to taste.

Preparing a sandwich like this:

1. The wild garlic is cut and pounded with salt in a mortar until the juice is released.
2. Eggs and cheese are grated.
3. Add mayonnaise and pepper.
4. All mix well.
5. Sliced ​​the resulting paste slices of bread.

Sandwiches with ramson pasta - great breakfast

Wild garlic is also harvested for the winter. It can be salted, pickled and even fermented, and most of the vitamins and minerals are retained.

A simple way to preserve wild garlic

For salting per 1 kg of wild garlic, you need 600 g of salt.

1. The leaves, along with the petioles, are well washed and soaked in cold water for half an hour.
2. Then the raw materials scalded with boiling water are laid in layers of about 2-3 cm in a sterilized jar.
3. Each layer is sprinkled with salt.
4. The jar is closed with a capron lid and cleaned in a cold place.

Salty wild garlic will delight in winter

Medicinal properties of wild garlic

Bear onions - the oldest medicinal plant. Archaeologists, thanks to studies of Neolithic settlements in the Alps, discovered wild garbage particles. This gives reason to believe that people used this plant several thousand years ago:

• the healing properties of wild garlic were used by the ancient Romans and Celts;
• in ancient medical manuals, this plant is mentioned as a sure means of protection against plague and cholera during an epidemic.

All parts of wild garlic are rich in vitamin C, and its content directly depends on the place of growth of the species - in plants of high mountain regions of this element an order of magnitude more. Also wild garlic contains:

• carotene,
• fructose,
• protein, mineral salts,
• volatile production.

Due to the variety of nutrients, wild garlic is used in clinical nutrition for vitamin deficiency as an anti-zingotic, bactericidal and intestinal motility improving agent. In addition, the use of this herb in food helps to restore metabolism, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, improves the functioning of the heart and blood vessels.

Video: details about wild wild garlic

Precautions for use

Due to the high content of phytoncides, wild garlic can be irritating to the digestive organs, so you need to eat it with caution, especially for people with diseases of the stomach and gall bladder.

Varieties of wild garlic

In the wild wild garlic is found only in one species. However, thanks to the breeding work of agricultural enterprises, new varieties of this plant appear:

• Bear delicacy is a long-term early ripe spicy variety with a large rosette, quite fruitful. Thanks to juicy tender leaves with a pleasant taste, it is recommended for use in salads, for pickling and pickling;
• Teddy bear is an early ripe variety. The leaves are dark green, large, lily of the valley. The surface of the sheet is covered with a barely noticeable wax coating. You can collect the first crop 15 days after the appearance of the leaves. Teddy bear withstands temperature drops and slight waterlogging of the soil;
• A bear's ear is a wild garlic of early ripening: 20 days elapse from emergence to the first harvest. Perennial plant of weakly sharp taste. The leaves are long, narrow, bright green. The variety is very productive, 2-2.5 kg of raw materials are collected from one square meter.

Photo gallery: wild garlic cultivars

In Siberia wild garlic is also called a related plant - victorious or victorious onion. These species are very similar in appearance and structure, but victorious onions are much larger, although the content of valuable and nutrients is no different from wild garlic.

Victory bow - Siberian ramson

Growing wild garlic in a garden

Many gardeners, especially in areas where wild wild garlic does not grow, grow it on their sites. This process does not cause particular difficulties, but some points should be noted:

• the place under the wild garlic should be shady and moist;
• culture multiplies most often by seeds that have passed stratification;
• wild leek - a slow-growing plant, so you need to be prepared that the planted seeds will sprout only the next year;
• the plant will become an adult in two, and will bloom, most likely, three years after planting.

The seeds of some crops must be stratified in order to germinate - lowering the temperature for up to 100 days. In nature, this process takes place naturally, when seeds that fall in autumn fall all winter under snow, and in spring they are pulled into the ground by meltwater. For stratification of garden plants, a refrigerator is successfully used.

Video: sowing wild garlic in a snail after stratification

Ramson - a wonderful gift from nature, allowing people to diversify and enrich their diet. But it is important to understand that this is a slowly growing grass and its collection on an industrial scale will lead to the complete disappearance of valuable onions. Therefore, the cultivation of wild garlic in home gardens can be considered an environmental measure.