Feast of fiddleheads.
I was lucky enough to stumble over a patch of ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) the other day and we had a feast of fiddleheads with our dinner. Moving through the woods at human pace is my favourite way to pass the time. I see folks roaring through the trails on ATVs and it just is not my world. Even a bike goes too fast. I would never have noticed the fiddleheads if I hadn’t been walking. Early May is a bit late for fiddleheads so I would not have been looking for them. I have marked the spot in my mind and in my calendar. Aside from my day timer that I use for my life I have a day timer in which I write down what plants I have seen/harvested, where I saw them, and I write it in on the appropriate day. This is how I know that, for example – in 2013 – I harvested nettles for nettle soup on April 20th. This year it is May 10th and nettles here still not large enough for soup. Also, it was snowing yesterday. Sigh.
I am always torn when I write about wild food because if everyone started chowing down, well we just need to look at what has happened with wild leek populations to see how destructive foraging can be. Wild foods add variety. Nutritional research has shown that when people have a greater variety in key food groups, they enjoy better health and live longer. The night we ate the fiddleheads we were supposed to have brussel sprouts (again). As I was favoured by fortune we instead ate the wild.
Living locally.
I like eating from the wild because it roots me very specifically to this place and this time. Fiddleheads (and all wild food) are ready when they are ready. Just like when harvesting herbs – if you miss the window – that’s it for the season. My partner, when I said we were having fiddleheads, wanted to know if I had gotten them at the store. Like ATVs, buying a wild food from the store is not my world.
Know your ferns
Ostrich ferns are the ferns safe to eat as fiddleheads. As with any wild food, be positive you have correctly identified the plant. Check several references to make sure you know what you are doing. I, for example, stay away from mushrooms because my identification skills are not great in this area. It is important to know that you have the correct fern because many ferns pop up with a fiddlehead. There are 3 things to look for to identify an ostrich fern (fiddlehead) correctly.
Ostrich ferns have a smooth hairless stem. 
The stem has a deep groove in it.
The fiddlehead has a sort of brown papery scale covering it. You can see it clearly in the photo below. This is easy to rub off (I usually rub it away as I harvest each fiddlehead).
Feast of fiddleheads
Fiddleheads need to be boiled or steamed before eating. I go through them to make sure that I have removed the brown scale. Then I rinse them well to remove any mud. I boil them for 10 minutes, drain and then sauté them in a pan with some butter and garlic. They have a very mild flavour. Admittedly they can be a bit labour intensive to prepare but that is part of their specialness. The ferns grow with several fronds in a clump known as a crown. When harvesting take only 1 or 2 fiddleheads from a single crown.
Fiddleheads can be cleaned, blanched and then frozen if you end up with more than what you can eat at one go. I hadn’t expected to be harvesting so I did not have a bag with me when I picked the fiddle heads. Turns out my coat pockets was just the right amount. Based on where they were growing I know that if I have a craving for more fiddleheads I can try my other spot which gets far less sun and will no doubt have fiddleheads well into late May.