The Where Have You Been? (Stardance!) Cafe

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schoenetanz
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Fiddleheads emerge in their miniature dervish dancers around the first week of May. In lowland forests from the Great Lakes to the Maritimes of Canada the Ostrich Fern emerges in profusion. Tiny gray-green spirals reaching into the first really warm days of Spring. Each of them wearing their own little fur overcoat to protect them when it was chillier weather. Snapped up and eaten by whoever has the sense and taste to do it.
By Summer the ferns will be up 4 feet tall, and thick even after our feast.

The clean lowlands of Nova Scotia and along the East Coast of the United States have been successfully managed for commercial harvest for more than 200 years. They are wild lands but for the harvest each Spring.

Fiddlehead Greens are the premium wild forage vegetable of Spring. No other vegetable matches the exquisite form and delicious flavor of fresh Fiddleheads.


Fiddlehead Recipes
Fiddlehead Souffl?
Fiddlehead and Ham Casserole
Morel and Fiddlehead Fern Ragout
Saut?ed Fiddleheads with Fresh Herbs
Fiddlehead Ferns with Escargot Butter
Fiddlehead Fern and Ramp Soup
Salad with Fiddlehead Ferns
Grilled Roots with Fiddleheads and Greek dressing
For More Fiddlehead and Wild Mushroom Recipes, visit our Earthy Delights Recipe Collection
Selection

In selecting fiddleheads look for a tight coil and only an inch or two of stem beyond the coil. There is a brown papery chaff that surrounds the fiddlehead on the plant. Much of this will have been removed prior to purchase, but some may remain.

The outside of the coil should have an intricate pattern of tiny leaves arranged along the sides of the spiral. Size of the coil should be 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Larger size is acceptable as long as they are tightly coiled.

Good fiddleheads should have a distinctly crisp texture, both raw and after brief cooking. When selecting Fiddleheads always be sure you are getting the true Eastern Fiddlehead. These are the new growing tips of the Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris).

There is an edible fern shoot sometimes offered from the Northwest early in the Spring but it should be rejected as they are inferior in taste and texture. Common bracken and other ferns also produce tightly coiled new growth in the Spring but none of these are suitable for eating.

Handling Fresh Fiddleheads

If more than 2 inches of stem remains attached beyond the coiled part of the fiddlehead snap or cut it off. If any of the paper chaff remains on the fiddlehead
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