Does anybody here even know what fiddleheads are? Answer- small baby ferns that you can cook and eat, but not all ferns, only one type.
Living in Vermont, once a year I wander the woods in search of these tasty things. Today was my day, and I harvested enough to have for dinner with three people. It’s a pain since they grow fast sporadically in odd places, and you should only take 1/3 of what is growing. And they are especially hard to find if somebody before you has cut some out and you have to leave the rest. It’s not like picking fruit, you can’t can’t take them all or they may not grow back next year. And they grow super fast- there’s about a one week window to get some, they go from nothing to unfurled and inedible in a few days.
They are super tasty fried up with garlic and bacon; they kind of taste like asparagus. As a kid I hated ALL green vegetable type things, but man do I love these. Maybe it’s the allure that they are only available for a week every year, maybe it’s the thrill of the chase. Anybody have any fiddlehead stories?
I’ve harvested and had fiddleheads, they are wonderful! We’d saute them with wild garlic. Haven’t had them in years though.
Where I live now, morels are a thing. Even if you only wind up with a handful after tromping around morel hunting in the woods all day, they taste fabulous because…you spent all day tromping around in the woods all day to get them.
They’re only grown wild. I don’t think they’re sold fresh outside of local farm markets. They’re like squash blossoms - too perishable to ship. But I have seen them pickled.
My aunt gave me some picked fiddleheads earlier this year. I know my husband won’t like them, and even if I like them (debatable) I couldn’t eat an entire jar. I passed them on to my parents where I know they’ll be appreciated.
I’m hoping to try one while I’m over there - I do like the raw fiddleheads grilled like asparagus, but pickling is always hit or miss with me.
I think they’re pretty, in a weird sort of way. I always think of baby fried calamari and Lovecraft.
Fellow Vermonter here, and I love fiddleheads . . . though not at the price they command at most groceries/farmers’ markets. Some seasons they come cheap, and I’ll buy 'em up, but at least so far this season the cost has been too rich for my blood.
I had fiddleheads a couple of weeks ago at a catered meal. They were kind of over-cooked, but still ok. I’ve seen them in the wild but didn’t pick them. The groceries carry them occasionally over the summer. When they’re very fresh or still growing they have an almost alien appearance. I made them once myself, sauteed, and that’s the way I’ve usually seen them served.
I can spot a morel and ramps but have never hunted for fiddleheads. It’s so much fun - like a treasure hunt.
We have many different types of ferns growing here in the woods of southern MN and I have two large groups growing in my yard. The ones that grow in my yard look like the edible fiddleheads I’ve seen in pictures.
I’m wondering how you identify an edible fern from a non-edible fern. What do you look for?
We dug up a couple from a farm (where they grown out in the woods like corn in a cornfield) and transplanted them to a shady area in the back yard. Now there are half a dozen, yay! But just last week I stepped on a baby fiddlehead growing away from its ‘parents’ in the middle of a walking path. Wish I’d seen it, I would have dug it up and moved the thing to safetyl
When I was a kid I used to eat them raw while I was hiking, and never had any adverse effects.
The blurb on wikipedia makes it sound like the issue is fairly theoretical (some people reported getting sick, but the CDC hasn’t been able to find any cause, and there’s a chemical that may or may not be a carcinogen associated with the ferns).
But since they taste better cooked in anycase, probably best to go that route.
The local price is about $5 a pound, whether a corner store, a big grocer like Market Basket, or a guys truck on the side of the road. I usually buy a few pounds, par-boil them, and then vacuum pack them and freeze in half pound portions. Nice to eat in the fall/winter to remind me of what’s to come in a few months in the spring.
