First Fiddleheads (how much, dinner, seller)

[RANGER.101ST]

Originally Posted by elston

I had fiddleheads with steam clams for supper tonight! I had never eaten or cooked fiddle heads before.......They were delicous! Loved Loved Loved them. Like eating springtime.

and you never invited us.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by elston

I had fiddleheads with steam clams for supper tonight! I had never eaten or cooked fiddle heads before.......They were delicous! Loved Loved Loved them. Like eating springtime.

Now that's a wicked good Maine feast if I ever heard of one!

[boonelsewhere]

now i see what fiddleheads look like, is it right/wronge to pick them.

Originally Posted by Maineah

Attachment 19778


Here's what to look for.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by boonskyler

now i see what fiddleheads look like, is it right/wronge to pick them.

Pick a few, boil them for ten minutes and throw out the water, then you can saute in butter, and taste them.

If they are bitter, you found the wrong ones.

If they have a very delicate flavour somewhere between spinach and lamb's quarter, then you found the right ones.

Pick lots!

If you boil a pan of salt water, you can dip the fiddleheads in the boiling saltwater for 30 seconds, rinse and then freeze them. If you have a vacuum sealer then frozen fiddleheads will keep all through next winter.

We vacuum seal and freeze most of our fiddleheads. So that we can have fiddlehead greens year around. Last year I took our extras to market, and I was still selling them until October.

[boonelsewhere]

sorry, what i try to say is you pull then off from ground, use scissor/knive to cut them off, or break them off some way.

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Pick a few, boil them for ten minutes and throw out the water, then you can saute in butter, and taste them.

If they are bitter, you found the wrong ones.

If they have a very delicate flavour somewhere between spinach and lamb's quarter, then you found the right ones.

Pick lots!

If you boil a pan of salt water, you can dip the fiddleheads in the boiling saltwater for 30 seconds, rinse and then freeze them. If you have a vacuum sealer then frozen fiddleheads will keep all through next winter.

We vacuum seal and freeze most of our fiddleheads. So that we can have fiddlehead greens year around. Last year I took our extras to market, and I was still selling them until October.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by boonskyler

sorry, what i try to say is you pull then off from ground, use scissor/knive to cut them off, or break them off some way.

Your thumb and first finger can pinch off the head.

[elston]

Does another plant grow to replace the "head" we take and eat. Does harvesting of fiddleheads kill the plant? It doesnt seem so because they are taken in such large numbers...and seem to continue to thrive and people like Forest have their own favorite spots that don't seem to get depleted. Does anyone know?

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by elston

Does another plant grow to replace the "head" we take and eat. Does harvesting of fiddleheads kill the plant? It doesnt seem so because they are taken in such large numbers...and seem to continue to thrive and people like Forest have their own favorite spots that don't seem to get depleted. Does anyone know?

The bottom of the plant is a cone shaped deal that looks like the egg pods in the movie Alien. That kind of splits open and the fiddleheads emerge from that. The ones around the sides grow a bit faster than the ones in the center. Ideally when they are up at just the perfect height I grab the cluster and give it a twist breaking off the side ones all at once. You usually get 5-6 that way and it leaves the center ones to grow. They're not root plants in the traditional sense. They emit spores like a mushroom. I have never seen a patch of them destroyed from over picking. I have seen patches of them washed away or covered over so deeply they could not emerge, but this is rare too. Most of the patches I frequent haven't changed at all in the 40 years I have been going there. If you walk the banks of just about any muddy stream you'll most likely find some. They like slightly sloping flat banks where the spring runoff washes over them them recedes after a day or two. The ones in the shaded areas seem to emerge earlier than the ones in the full sun for some reason. I knew of an early patch that came in a week before all the others as it was shaded in an alder run. The beavers cut down all of the alders and now the patch has barely any fiddleheads left in it.

[bigfoot2you]

YUMMMMMMM fiddleheads.........I've picked a bunch so far...........
Bigfoot

[bignhfamily]

My 8 year old son and I spent yesterday afternoon picking fiddleheads.
It actually started out as as the first canoe ride of the season and when we stopped on the bank for a break we discovered a hugh patch of fiddleheads.
I told him we should pick some for dinner and before you know it the shirts were coming off (as we needed something to put our harvest in) and we had around 10 lbs. The black flies and skeeters were relentless on the paddle back to the truck but it was all worth it. We ate a big batch last night (I saute ours with olive oil and fresh minced garlic and ground black pepper after blanching them for a few minutes). The kids say they taste like a combination or spinach and broccoli. We will freeze some later today. DW is bagging up several packages to give away at church this morning.
Best to all!