Frozen Fiddleheads for sale? (living, area, island)
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Forest, do you think you'll have fewer to wild harvest after the flood? Or is it too early to tell?
I do not know.
The fern is a perennial plant. Each fern plant has it's root system, which gets bigger each year.
It's sap and strength are now down underground waiting. Each year in the fall when the top dies off, all of that goes into the roots to wait for spring.
From what I have learned the edible ferns are only those which grow under the flood zone.
I remove the branches [for food] when they come up, and more will come up behind them, until finally the root is exhausted and no longer has any energy to shoot up more branches. Then it might possible die.
The ferns will wait until however long it takes for the water to go down and the temps to rise, before they begin to wake-up.
Because each flood plan, is in different locations, it can become a study in micro-climates, as each section of a river's ferns will have it's own season. There are fiddleheads that will be harvested before mine have came up, and there are fiddleheads that will not come up until after all of mine are done. But in each area, they all begin coming up at the same time. Five miles away could be a week earlier, and so forth.
Don't eat the fuzz covered ones! The ones that have fuzz on the stems are not he right ones. Edible ones have a brown papery coating that resembles wet parchment. The stem has a pronounced "U" shape to it and is a dark kelly green. When in doubt ask someone as you don't want to pick the wrong ones.
Edible ones do not grow in high dry areas. Even though you may find ferns near a stream it does not mean they are the edible variety. forest is right they vary in where they grow and when they are ready. I know places where they are up now and other places where it will be weeks yet before they are up.The other ferns won't kill you like bad mushrooms will but they will make you sick if you eat them.
Don't eat the fuzz covered ones! The ones that have fuzz on the stems are not he right ones. Edible ones have a brown papery coating that resembles wet parchment. The stem has a pronounced "U" shape to it and is a dark kelly green. When in doubt ask someone as you don't want to pick the wrong ones.
Edible ones do not grow in high dry areas. Even though you may find ferns near a stream it does not mean they are the edible variety. forest is right they vary in where they grow and when they are ready. I know places where they are up now and other places where it will be weeks yet before they are up.The other ferns won't kill you like bad mushrooms will but they will make you sick if you eat them.
eek...I'm just going to buy them from someone. I'm so excited to try my first fiddlehead!
On our land we have a spotted forest fern [or Bracken fiddlehead 'Pteridium aquilinum' ] that has a thicker covering of fuzz. They taste bitter.
We also have the un-spotted swamp fern [or Ostrich fern or Shuttlecock fern 'Matteuccia struthiopteris' ] that has a very light delicate fuzz [after the brown husk is gone], and tastes like a cross between Lamb's Quarter and spinach.
I tell folks that when they see fern and wonder if it is 'right', if they stop a moment and consider, 'Are your feet wet'? If you are standing on dry ground that never floods, it is likely the wrong kind of fern.
Also Fiddleheads come from 'otter-water', 'beaver-sewage', 'fish-poo', and the brown briny water run-off from every critter that lives in the forest. So make sure that you cook your fiddleheads. Ten minutes in boiling water and throw that water out. Before you saute or otherwise cook them.
On our land we have a spotted forest fern [or Bracken fiddlehead 'Pteridium aquilinum' ] that has a thicker covering of fuzz. They taste bitter.
We also have the un-spotted swamp fern [or Ostrich fern or Shuttlecock fern 'Matteuccia struthiopteris' ] that has a very light delicate fuzz [after the brown husk is gone], and tastes like a cross between Lamb's Quarter and spinach.
I tell folks that when they see fern and wonder if it is 'right', if they stop a moment and consider, 'Are your feet wet'? If you are standing on dry ground that never floods, it is likely the wrong kind of fern.
Also Fiddleheads come from 'otter-water', 'beaver-sewage', 'fish-poo', and the brown briny water run-off from every critter that lives in the forest. So make sure that you cook your fiddleheads. Ten minutes in boiling water and throw that water out. Before you saute or otherwise cook them.
ya know...sometimes I just like to NOT know things.
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