Hunting Down Ramps in Early Spring So, you looked at this week's Good Appetite column about focaccia and said to yourself, "I'm going to run out, get some ramps and make that." The thought you did not have was, "Where in the world did they find ramps to photograph two weeks ago?" The problem of deadlines that involve nature sometimes plays havoc with what we have to prepare for camera. With all of the severe weather that has plagued our farmers this past year, certain items prove hard to find early, but early is the stock and trade of food photography. We need to have it first to make the dish, so that when they are readily available to all of you at market, there are pictures to accompany the recipes. This one was very tricky. The Union Square Greenmarket had signs reading "Ramps are Coming," meant to reassure everyone that they were delayed but would be ready for their planned primavera shortly. "Soon" didn't help me because my deadline was 10 days before their imminent arrival. A food photographer has to have relationships with the neighborhood grocer and the farmers" market, and also a passing knowledge of the local Chinatown. But you also have to form connections with importers and wholesalers who can get things when you need them. These ramps come via Baldor Specialty Foods, the spawn of the original Balducci's on Sixth Avenue. They had just arrived from Michigan, but instead of experiencing the sunshine and optimism of a spring day at the Greenmarket to go and pick them up, I was in in a 200,000-square-foot refrigerated warehouse in Hunts Point. Deadlines are deadlines, and part of this gig, like playing for the Yankees, is being able to hit a curveball in the spring.