Fiddlehead Season is here

[Mooseherder]

They're coming up in Northern Maine on the banks of waterways.  
 

[Southside]

That means so are the smelt! Get the ployes cooking! 

[Wudman]

I made it up to Northern Maine once.  All the country stores were advertising fiddleheads so I figured I had to give them a try.  Believe I'll stick to GRITS south of the Mason Dixon. :D

Wud

[thecfarm]

Should be selling them in town then. There will be someone on the side of the street with a big sign.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Just shows how much I know - I opened this thread expecting to see a plate full of fried catfish. (Umm - I guess those are bullheads. Oops.)

   How do you cook/prepare (Repair? :D) a fiddlehead?

[Mooseherder]

Most people boil or steam them then butter.  My favorite is a dish we call Mess Pork.  It's a salt brined pork roast or chops. Like a boiled dinner with potatoes and whatever you like in it.  Viende Salle.

The foraging for fiddleheads is the fun part.

[K-Guy]

I have a bunch at my place, pick all you want. i leave them for you!!  ;D

[Mooseherder]

Okay, but if you're ever starving you're gonna have to wait until next May.  :D

[sawguy21]

I'm not familiar with them but had my first feed of steamed local asparagus with butter and pepper. Oh my oh my! 8)

[peakbagger]

My friends uncle would head up to the Golden Road with camper and big freezer in the back. They would head into a few favorite spots and fill the freezer. One of them had them out of the freezer year round as one of his primary veggies. He did not can them, just kept them in chest freezer. 

[WV Sawmiller]

SG21,

   Sorry but I think a good old plate of properly/lightly salted grits and butter will beat a plate of asparagus any time. (TEHO).

PB,

   I wonder how they would be stir fried? ;)

[SwampDonkey]

We've been eating some this week. Add butter, some folks add vinegar. The ones up at the woodlot have all gone to fern stage now.

I've picked and ate them from the Skeena River near Prince Rupert. The Indian folk were picking them to out there. Ostrich fern is what we eat here. No one in the west that I knew ever ate them, except the Indians. Some were down right skeered to eat'm. Too much listening to government experts not wanting you to eat natural stuff. :D

[Mooseherder]

I picked enough for one meal.  There's probably one more coming up.  There's not a lot of them on our property but 2 meals will suffice.

[SwampDonkey]

We blanch the fiddles heads here before freezing, otherwise you have black fiddle heads. Still edible black, but not inviting to eat. :D

I have a species of wood fern (Dryopteris austriaca) on my place that the winter never kills. It of course in flattened by the snow, but totally green, the cold doesn't burn it. I noticed one this spring beside a fir that broke off in the wind.

[Magicman]

 

 Reckon this one is 'bout ready??  :D

[Mooseherder]

That one got ate already.

[Andries]

Coconut fiddlehead?
:D :D :D 
In one end, out the other - 'got ate already'.
Some folks benefit by more fibre in their diets. arg-smiley

[SwampDonkey]

Reminds me of the cat that consumed a fur ball. You know what became of the fur ball. :D ;)

[Mooseherder]

Had them for the 4th time tonight.   The foraging part is fun also and it also signals the start of the summer season.  



 

[Southside]

Smelt running in the cove? 

[Mooseherder]

Last I heard about smelt was Long Lake had a healthy population of them but that was a few years ago.  I know they're stocking trout in the waterways now.  WAGM showed that clip over and over for a couple of days. :D

[Mooseherder]

The kind you don't eat.


 

[SwampDonkey]

Smelt fishing is always a thing on the Miramachi River here in New Brunswick in May. Grandfather used to go over there and dip net them. But you can get them in the store now to. They are a tasty little fish. They come from the sea and run the river.

[Mooseherder]

We used to dip net by Mud brook which is a tributary of Long lake.

[fluidpowerpro]

When I saw the picture I said that looks like a fern just coming up in the spring. Look it up and sure enough, I was right. Didn't know you could eat them. I see one pick that says "the kind you don't eat" .
I've got ferns growing every where on my land. How do I know which ones I can eat?