Do you have a gathering guide? So we can look for some to try?  Or better yet, feel free to just bring a plate by next time.  I'm not real picky and these look great.

Are wild leeks the very common plant we see in the woods this time of the year?  Is there something similar looking we shouldn't eat?  Can one confirm it being a wild leek by crushing a stem and smelling for onion or garlic?  I love wild leeks but never knew what they looked like in the wild.  Thanks!

Bret, wild leeks (or ramps) are the first thing to come up in the woods. The only similar looking plant is garden-escaped lilies of the valley (which are poisonous), though I personally don't think they look all that similar. The main identifier of the wild leek is the deep reddish coloring between the little bulb and the green part. And yes, the smell/taste.

Edible Tulip: Rummaging for Ramps/Wild Leeks

Photo of wild leeks. They are everywhere in the woods right now. I've never tried the bulb part of the leek as described via this link. Sounds like work to dig the bitches up. I would think if you dig up the bulb that they couldn't grow back next year.

I always see lilies later in the season, after the leeks are gone.  Has anyone seen them in the woods concurrently?

The key is "sustainable harvest" of either of these spring delicacies, because digging the roots or breaking off the fiddleheads is killing that individual plant (or part of in the case of the ferns).

Don't take every plant in the bunch. Maybe 1 out of 10 or slightly higher ratio. But stop way before hitting the half way mark! Leave enough for others and for the plant to survive into the next year.

According to Petersons Edible Wild Plants:

It is recommended to cook both bracken and ostrich fern fiddleheads - more so with bracken (and for longer related to an enzyme in the raw fern that can destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine). There are other ferns in the area that are presumably edible, but more bitter.

Looks like many of the ferns are moving past harvesting stage - at least in the woods along Skyline, but the ramps(leeks) are still available.

Thanks everyone.  I took a sustainable harvest big enough for a meal for two!  They'll go nice with the yellow foot chanterelles we found last August.

Now, do we get morels up here?

We got a truckload of mulch from Lake Superior Garden Center two years ago, and the following year morels grew up out of it.  Other than that I haven't seen a morel here.

The main thing to digging ramps sustainably is to pick a big patch (not difficult) and to, as previously mentioned, take only a few from each bunch. They don't seem to have any problem propagating if you do that. 

They favor wet hillsides, and this makes digging them not too bad. You do need a good sharp garden trowel, and you do need to go a bit deep, or you miss the bulb. 

If you only pick enough for your personal consumption, you'll be alright. They are common enough around here that I don't worry too much. People are not (yet) inclined to the hard work involved, so I don't anticipate having to compete with others at my favorite patches. A lot of people find them to be not to their taste, anyway.

If I'm reading this right, the morel of this story is that I should go take a leek.

I had fiddleheads last night and they weren't bitter at all. My procedure is to boil them for four minutes, shock them in an ice bath afterwards, pat dry and then saute in 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 butter with a little garlic and then salt/pepper to taste.

Identifying the good eating ferns is easy. First, you don't want the ones that have a light "fuzz" all over them. The good ones may have a little brown "paper" on the head that can be easily rubbed off by hand. Other than being fuzz-free, the second way to ID them is to look for those ferns whose stalk has a deep rib similar to celery. 

Get 'em young and only take a couple out of each bunch you find.

Anyone tried boiled Stinging Nettle? Tastes similar to spinach and there maybe plenty of it growing in your backyard.