They say that life doesn’t close a door without opening a window, and that was illustrated quite clearly for me late last week. On thursday we lost a quarter-of-a-million dollar contract to political in-fighting, plunging us back into financial uncertainty.
Then, on Friday afternoon, on a hike along the banks of the Speed river, we discovered a huge patch of ostrich ferns poking their heads out of the ground. We harvested about a pound of succulent fiddleheads, cooked them up and had them for dinner with some bacon and three cheese perogies. Absolutely delicious!
I urge anyone who lives near the sandy banks to get out and pick a few. yumm yum yum yum yum.
Fiddlehead
Botany: The coiled young frond of any of various ferns, some of which are considered a delicacy when cooked.
The frond is a baby fern, so to speak. Before it unfurls it looks like the curled end of a violin/fiddle.
Um…yeah…so, on the page where I went after googling, I saw the word “mushroom”, and so…uh, ya’ know even though there’s this picture with GREEN things on it, I run back here and uh…said “oh, yeah they’re mushrooms”, sounding all knowledgeable and stuff.
It’s an apargustatory thing: emerging fronds are very delicious. Spring greens are full of life and tasty beyond store bought. Hear ya, and glad you enjoyed them,Mr FantsyPants
Hope that experience helps you to get beyond the business setback. Getting out into the great green woods is a good heal up from the frenzy of it all,and puts life in a better perspective. Cheers for spring!
Yep, I have had store-bought fiddleheads a few times, and they were similar to asparagus in most ways. The fresh picked ones (I think I get them a little younger than most commercial ones are) were a good deal better. Very tender, very tasty.
Used to go on extended camping trips in the cascades, and there’s nothing that makes the food you pack in with you more satisfying than being supplemented with fresh stuff from the trail.
All through June you’ve got nice green fiddleheads. Steamed, with a nice vinaigrette or mustard sauce, fresh kokanee salmon, and rice on the side. Maybe some puffballs or morels. Who needs civilization?
When the fiddleheads start to get scarce and the Miner’s cabbage is too mature to be tasty, the berries start coming in: Salmonberries, blackberries, raspberries, and cranberries. If you’re there late in the year, after the berries are pretty much gone, you can go looking for chanterelles.
I have ferns in my yard. So you’re saying I can cut off the tops when they emerge (I’m in hte north, so they’re just starting) and cook them? What is the best way? The boil/sear method above?
Does it damage the way the ferns look the rest of the summer? Is it only the tops that are tasty? Can I cut back to the ground and get the second growth?
The main fern that is eaten is the Ostrich Fern. If the tops are curled like in the photo linked to above, but there is no hair on them, there are little papery brown flecks on the head, and when cut, the stalk has a u-shaped groove on it, then you’ve got an ostrich fern. For established plants, there is a woody knob that the fronds grow out of. Take the tops and an inch or three of stalk.
Cutting them will likely stop those fronds from growing that year (not entirely sure) so cull selectively, rather than taking the whole plant.
Wash them very thoroughly (I shake them in a bag of water, changing the water a couple of times), then boil them for 15 minutes. Then I would suggest lightly pan-frying them.
Ostrich ferns, under the name fiddleheads, are the provincial plant of New Brunswick, my natal province. (They’re even depicted on the provincial coat of arms.) I have a plush toy fiddlehead around here somewhere from my early childhood.
I tried some fiddleheads in later life and found them gross, but then they were frozen, so perhaps I lost something of the experience. I like asparagus, so maybe I should give them a try if I’m ever in a position to have fresh fiddleheads.
I never cared for the things, but they are popular here, especially with the tourists who don’t know what they are and imagine them to be some sort of grand delicacy (an illusion fostered by the restaurants serving them). People pick them from ferny ditch banks and boggy areas and sell them by the bushel to restaurants, who then mark up the price several hundred percent and sell them to southern tourists, telling them some story about their suppliers being special farms that grow this exotic “fiddlehead plant” exclusively for them. I suppose saying they’re unopened ferns picked from along the road wouldn’t sell.
I, too, am from New Brunswick, and I was *raised * on those suckers. Who doesn’t have at least one supper each week during springtime that has fiddleheads in it? Best way to eat your greens, I tell you.
I moved here to Seattle, and no one knows what the hell I’m talking about. Insanity! However, walking through the Arboretum and Japanese Gardens this past week, I noticed there are some fuzzy fiddleheads around. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for the ostrich fern, now. And when I find them, I’m going to cut 'em, wash 'em, boil 'em, fry 'em in a bit of butter, and then I’ll eat the hell out of them!
I had them once, at a fancy wedding reception in Boston, in 1993 or so. They were great, and I haven’t seen them since. I can’t think of any food that better qualifies as a “delicacy” in my mind.
My folks were originally from Aroostook Junction, a New Brunswick CPR town – which is probably the only reason I ever learned that those “weeds” were good eating.
If you’re reading this and you’re thinking about trying them, please be aware, you can’t just eay any old (actually, young) fern fronds - many species are poisonous.
