Thanks, catspaw. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. That's how my mum went. And she had a ramsons story. Her mother used to be in service as a maid. One day visitors were expected and she was told to do the table decorations. There weren't many flowers about, so she used ramsons flowers (I don't know what Ramps are like, but ramsons are white with a lot of small starry flowers in a cluster, very pretty). Part way through the meal the mistress had to call her "Bertha, I think you had better take those flowers out," and she was told later never to use them again. Mum and I went to a coffee morning together once and found the dear ladies had done exactly the same thing. Odd though, they didn't stink us out.

The BBC flew some ramps back and got a chef who has used ramsons to cook up a dish with them. it seems to have been a good one. He may be over in Waynesvill next year.

Penny