Ramp festivals slated this weekend
MT. MORRIS – Ramp Feast or Ramp Fest – take your pick, or do both, this weekend. At Mason Dixon Park, Mt. Morris, on the Pennsylvania side of that famous line, there is a Saturday and Sunday Ramp Fest to celebrate the wild leek of Appalachia. It features crafters, demonstrations, live music and lots and lots of food served up with ramps as the star ingredient. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.
Cross the line and drive three miles, and you’ll find Mason Dixon Historical Park near Core, W.Va. This county park marks the spot where astronomer surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon were stopped in their tracks Oct. 9, 1767. The French and Indian War was a game of deadly ambush, and their Delaware Native American guides would take them no further into the disputed wilderness of the Western frontier. It would be another 14 years before the line that would define a nation was finished. But then, as now, ramps grew in wild profusion on moist hillsides and were eagerly gathered and eaten in spring.
On Saturday, a feast will be held at the park’s Red Barn, 79 Buckeye Road, from 8 a.m to 2 p.m. A hearty sideboard of home-cooked food, liberally laced with allium tricoccum, aka bear onion, aka ramp, will be served.
“We call it our old-fashioned annual Ramp Buffet,” park manager Betty Wiley said. “There are ramps in most of the dishes, but we also make some without them. It’s funny but some people like to come to our ramp buffet but they don’t like ramps!”
The feast includes biscuits and ramp sausage gravy, ramp deviled eggs, ham, ramp and bean soup, ramp salad and even ramp cake. Homemade noodles, breads and deserts and beverages, like fresh dug sassafras tea, round out the eating experience that is one of the park’s most popular fundraisers.
It’s worth the drive to visit both parks Saturday. Pay tribute to history with a pungent brunch and a hike up Browns Hill to see the old marker, and then head back to “Penn’s Woods” for an afternoon of crafts, live music, historic exhibits and even more snacking on ramped up festival food, including the Mason-Dixon Dog on a bun topped with chili, coleslaw, kraut and ramps, “all for just a buck.”
Mason Dixon Park will continue its fest with an outdoor church service Sunday, and both days feature music, crafters, prizes and raffles, antique engines and lots of friendly people. But the star of the show is those bushels of wild leeks that were once eaten as a spring tonic but have now become a reason to throw the first party of spring.
Directions to Mason Dixon Park: Take I-79 to Exit 1 at Mt. Morris to Buckeye Road to Creek Road, go one-half mile to Mason-Dixon Park. For more information, visit www.masondixonpark.net, or call 1-304-879-5372.
Directions to Mason Dixon Historical Park, Core, W.Va.: Continue on Buckeye Road past Creek Road for approximately two miles. Park is on the right and can be recognized by its big red barn. For more information on this park, visit www.masondixonhistoricalpark.com, or call 1-304-680-7353.