ROME TOWNSHIP — Only 90 minutes into the VFW 6878 ramp dinner 80 pounds of fried potatoes and bags and bags of the leafty bulb you either love or hate had been consumed.

“Someone came here at 9:30 in the morning,” Jane Napier, president of the post’s Ladies Auxiliary, said. “We had to tell him we don’t open til 11.”

Ramp lovers from the Tri-State and beyond, all the way from Chillicothe and Portsmouth, descended on the post home outside of Proctorville on Saturday.

“Everybody loves ramps,” Napier said. “They are a delicacy in New York.”

The annual springtime ramp dinner started in the 1980s from an idea from the post’s oldest member, 89-year-old Ernest Earl.

Thursday post members went out to a secret location to dig the ramps, a cross between a garlic and a scallion. They brought back 25 bags that each held 25 pounds of ramps.

Friday was spent cleaning the ramps and Saturday the auxiliary showed up to cook the feast.

As many as 200 diners have showed up to a ramp dinner, which is the VFW’s biggest fundraiser.

All proceeds go to help veterans.