[Music]
got a real nice stand of ostrich Fern
here're picking up some fiddleheads and
the time that you want to look for these
is in the early spring this is the uh
5th of May and uh the black flies are
starting to come out and the trilliums
are in full bloom so when you start to
see the trilliums that's the time to
start looking for the ostrich
F here's a really nice batch of uh
ostrich Fern here these here have gone
by they're unfurled too much but there's
a little group right here which are just
about perfect now this is this is what
we're looking for right
here the uh The Telltale signs of the
ostrich Fern are these uh rust color
papery like substance which they're
covered in and they have a very deep
Groove inside the
stem it's a very deep Groove much like a
stock of celery
has okay uh a lot of the other ferns
don't have that Groove and that's a
Telltale sign right there is this deep
Groove and the brown pap paper like
substance and I haven't seen any other
Fern possess those two
qualities you want to pick them when
they're really no taller than say 8 in
okay um and generally I don't leave any
more of the stock than what is shown
here um these here are unfurled a bit so
I wouldn't pick those at all
well now that I went ahead and showed
you uh how to identify the ostrich Fern
I'm going to show you um another variety
here now every Fern when it comes out of
the ground will have a fiddle type head
on it okay but that doesn't mean that
they are fiddleheads now back in the
years ago I tried to eat these and these
taste like ass all right these are no
good this isn't what you want at all and
to my knowledge they're a carcinogenic
now these are the most commonly mistaken
ones for fiddleheads uh people learn
about fiddlehead ferns and they go out
and they see this fiddlehead which I did
about 15 years ago and gave them a try
and you can't get them clean and they're
just horrible okay quite a difference
between the ostrich front this is a
round stem it's a round stem it's
covered with white fuzz that just
doesn't peel off easy okay you just want
to avoid those the ostrich nice deep V
with the brown husk papery husk that
comes right off okay so it's when you
compare the two side by side like this
here you know there's really no
comparison okay you can't uh mistake one
for the other now when you're looking
for your ferns you're looking for that
deep V uh in the stem but you don't want
to be trying to identify ferns later in
the year like after they've gone by like
here is this this this variety with the
round stem with the we don't want but if
you break off some of these old
stems they will display a deep V in them
okay now I'm really not sure why or how
it goes from this round stem to that but
they do when they dry out so when you're
looking for that deep V you want to do
it at picking time like we are
today we don't want that one
there now here's the other variety that
I was uh describing a minute ago um
these come up they have a small fiddle
type head on them but the stem is very
very small okay that's about E8 in
diameter or smaller and here is the
ostrich Fern okay no comparison but this
the reason why I'm showing these is
there is a slight V very slight V in the
stem okay and I'm showing this so you
don't mistake these for the ostrich
Fern you know cuz they air is a slight V
and somebody might come in the woods and
go oh these are ones they got a v in the
in the stem and eat them but these this
is not I don't know the name of this
variety uh but you want to avoid these
again see the difference in the size of
the Fiddle Head this is about the size
of a dime and that's about the size of a
half dollar okay so now you're seeing
this is the ostrich Fern the one we
want a little type one with a little bit
of a v we don't want those and these
hairy ones we don't want those okay this
is what you want right
here now all we need is some Brook TR
okay once you get your your uh fiddle
heads home you're going to want to get
all this husk off of them and if you
only have a few to do of course you can
just peel the husk off by hand it comes
right off but it batch this size we use
to draw a sink of water we fill both
sinks up and we do two grines we just uh
dump them in you see already a lot of
the husk has come off and uh just swish
them
around a lot of that husk will come
right
off and most of the husk is off already
and then as I'm taking them out of the
thinkink I just give them one last
little look see these come out really
decent real
good now you don't want to eat these
raw you want to make sure you if you
boil them you want to boil them for at
least 10 minutes and if you just steam
them a good 12 to 14 minutes is
wise and the cooking fluid will turn a
reddish
brown just so if you see that there's
nothing to be alarmed about that's what
to
expect and these are coming out real
nice and clean real
simple well here we got a nice batch of
fiddleheads all cleaned up ready for
cooking we're going to put these in the
steamer pot steam them up and then sauté
them in a fry pan with some butter and
garlic in they're really good A little
black pepper a little salt very good and
you can also marinate them so if you
have a nice big batch of these you can
marinate them and can them they're
pretty good that way
too well that should be all you need to
know to properly identify the Ostrich
Ferns enjoy
[Music]