Down on Greasy Creek

They held the 49th annual Polk County, TN 'Ramp Tramp' this weekend. Our first time at this down-home gathering, but it won't be the last.

The site is a 4-H camp originally built by the CCC.

Inside, folks enjoying local music and the ramp dinner.

Outside, vendors sell local products: here they are steeping sassafras tea.

Lots of cooks to make this delicious meal:

Beans, corn muffins, potatoes, bacon, and eggs with ramps. Buttermilk pie and coffee. Yum.

The band? Ducktown Station. They got lots of folks up and clogging.





The Cosby Ramp Festival, at the other end of the Smokies in Tennessee, is next weekend. The one in Cosby is just a bit older than the 49-year-old Polk fest; it was started in 1954.

What are ramps? According to this description, they are a wild member of the onion family that grows from Nova Scotia south. That explains why I think the 'wild leeks' that a neighbor searched for every spring in our creekbed in upstate NY were the same thing. They probably were.

Here's a lot more on using ramps or wild leeks.

Thanks to Lisa Jacobi for the ramp photo.

(Update:) More photos from the Ramp Tramp are in a slide show on Ducktown Station's website, via Lisa Jacobi. But if you're on dialup like me, be warned it will take awhile to load.