“Every year my mother and I make two trips in late April and early May to harvest wild ramps in Connecticut. It’s a ritual for us—we enjoy a picnic, and for my mother, it brings back memories her childhood village in Tibet. It’s picking the ramps— moreso than eating them—that she loves. 

There is a folk song from her village that celebrates the harvest of ramps, and anything that grows wild. Gathering from the wild is considered virtuous because it is believed that it spares not only the labor of cultivation, but the lives of the insects and worms who might be harmed in the act of farming. However, one must take care not to over-harvest wild plants, otherwise they may become extinct. Half of the ramp bulb should be left in the ground so that the roots will grow next year’s harvest.”

Folk Song: 

སྷབ་པའི་ལོ་སྷོབ་ན་སུམ་
མ་སྷབ་པའི་ལོ་སྷོབ་ན་སུམ
ཙོ་བའི་ཙོན་ན་སུམ
མཙོ་བའི་ཙོན་ན་སུམ་
འདི་བོ་སུམ་ངའི་ལོ་ཡང་ཤིན་

Of course I know three wild harvests and three planted harvests
Of course I know three wild color dyes and three man-made color dyes
Of course I know how to harvest and care for sentient beings

DAWA BHUTI is the chef and co-owner of Dawa’s Restaurant in Woodside, Queens, NYC. Although family is originally from Tibet, she was born in Nepal, and grew up attending Tibetan refugee boarding schools in India. Bhuti is interested in how different cultures share similarities in their cuisines, yet prepare dishes differently depending on local traditions and availability of ingredients. Bhuti believes in the power of food to create familiarity and unity.