The smell of the Ramson

Wild garlic, Allium ursinum, also known as ramsons, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek or bear's garlic, is a wild relative of chives native to Europe and Asia. The Latin name ursinum relates to the fact that brown bears apparently have a taste for the bulbs and dig up the ground to get at them.

The Talpas are quite fond of wild garlic too. I well remember the first time we ate them, stewed in milk. We were on holiday with the young Talpids and staying in the village of Ballyvaughan in Eire. We hadn't been there above an hour before an old man knocked on the door to sell us a bucket of potatoes, and a shillelagh. He then directed us to the grounds of some grand house where we could dig up a few ramsons to accompany the tatties. If I remember correctly the house had been the family home of one Captain Thomas Blood, he who attempted to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London in May 1671.

It is amazing what memories can be released by the simple smell of a plant.