welcome to this episode of outside fun
rhyme foraging for fiddleheads in the
spring shortly after the snow has melted
away fiddleheads begin to sprout from
the ground by their appearance one can
see why they are appropriately called
fiddleheads but what you're actually
seeing here is an ostrich fern in its
early stages fiddleheads grow fast and
before you know it they will have
unfurled into a fully mature three to
four foot tall fern at this stage the
ostrich fern becomes inedible and so it
is only in their fiddlehead form that
they are good to eat fiddleheads grow in
damp
even swampy soil or in hardwood forests
with rich soil although they are very
easy to identify because of their unique
appearance there are several different
species of fiddleheads some of which are
not edible and so the species that I'm
looking for today is of the ostrich fern
variety the good news is that it's easy
to tell an ostrich fern fiddlehead apart
from all the other inedible species once
you've located a fiddlehead there are
three things you should look for to make
sure it's the right kind number one the
fiddleheads should have bits of brown
paper II material on it that can easily
be picked off
the second sign you need to look for is
that the stem of the fiddlehead is both
smooth and free of any hairs and thirdly
the stem of the fiddlehead should have a
deep u-shaped groove
you
these three signs indicate that you have
an ostrich fern fiddlehead which means
it's safe to eat however they should not
be consumed raw you'll have to properly
cook them first before eating them
before I continue I'd like to show you
an example of a fiddlehead that's not
good to eat notice how these are
fiddleheads but they are clearly not of
the edible kind let me prove it to you
by using the three identifiers that I
just listed first of all these
fiddleheads are absent of any brown
paper II material secondly the stem is
not smooth but it's covered in fibers
and thirdly the stem has no hollow
u-shape to it instead it is completely
round this tells us that this is
definitely not the plant we want okay
let's return to the patch of edible
fiddleheads that I discovered when
picking fiddleheads only gather the ones
that are less than eight inches tall
if the fiddleheads are any taller they
are not good for eating
so when I pick fiddleheads I usually
play it safe and pick ones that are
about five inches tall or shorter
fiddleheads will grow in clusters so
when picking them make sure to leave at
least one or two of them behind so that
the fern plant will remain healthy
after I picked what I needed I brought
them home to cook
I started by thoroughly washing the
fiddleheads making sure to remove all
the papery material and any lingering
bugs that may be hiding out
you
then I toss them in a pot and
for about seven minutes
after boiling the fiddleheads I sauteed
them in a frying pan with butter and
garlic powder for a few minutes
and now they are ready to enjoy they
have a pleasant flavor that is similar
to a mild asparagus and I love the
texture of them
you
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