Fiddleheads Taste Like Spring – Tips on Foraging, Cooking, and Preserving

Fiddleheads are the uncurled, deep green fronds of the graceful ostrich fern. They are at their prime for eating while young, firm and tightly curled.

Spring is the time to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine and nothing is more fun than going on an old-fashioned wild food hunt. One of mother nature’s first and finest treats of the season are fiddlehead ferns. Ostrich ferns (matteuccia struthiopteris), more commonly known as fiddleheads because the unfurled frond of the fern resembles the finely crafted head of a fiddle, grow throughout North America and are plentiful in Ontario woodlands.

Depending on weather, the fronds begin to appear around late April and by early May they can often be found growing in abundance on moist, fertile grounds. The best places to hunt fiddleheads are along river and stream banks, in open woodlands and at the edges of swamps and marshes.

Fiddleheads are the uncurled, deep green fronds of the graceful ostrich fern. They are at their prime for eating while young, firm and tightly curled. As the fern stalk reaches about six to eight inches in height, the frond begins to uncurl into a soft, feathery fern, losing its table appeal.

In recent years fiddleheads have become a commercial vegetable showing up in the produce departments of larger grocery stores across the country, sold fresh and frozen at fairly hefty prices. Canadian fiddleheads from the wild are also exported to Europe as a specialty food item. Numerous attempts at cultivating the plant have failed so the ones available at the store are identical to woodland finds. If you’ve never seen fiddleheads before, check them out at the supermarket before hitting the trails. This will ensure you know what to look for.

Fiddleheads grow in clumps and should be picked in a thinning-out fashion, taking several fronds from each cluster rather than stripping the whole clump. This is how my grandmother taught me to pick and I have been harvesting from the same bountiful patches for years. Since new roots are produced annually from the base of the current year’s fronds, harvesting in this manner encourages new growth for the following season. It also leaves fronds to mature into ferns that will live out the season and fall back to the earth to become rich fertilizer.

Some foragers use a small knife for cutting the heads but I find they break off very easily by hand — a safer method, especially for kids, and said to be healthier for the plant. When collecting fronds as they first emerge from the ground, work your fingers to the base and break the head from the cluster. Once fiddleheads rise on their stalks, they are much easier to gather. Just break off the fronds and leave stalks standing.

The fronds are covered with a brownish, onion-skin like coating that must be removed before eating. This can be done by shucking with your hands. After the chafe is removed, wash the fiddleheads well under cold running water to remove dirt before cooking. Finicky diners can rest assured that worms and bugs are seldom found on the fronds.

Always gather edible wilds away from roadsides and other areas where they might be contaminated with pollution, herbicides and pesticides. This will ensure that you are bringing home a super clean, organic vegetable for the supper table.

As a kid, I helped my grandmother gather endless basketfuls of fiddleheads from our backyard woodlands — enough for eating fresh all season and some for putting up for winter use by freezing, pickling and canning. We’d also dry several pickings by stringing onto heavy thread with a needle and hanging in the attic until moisture was gone. Once dry they were unstrung into gunny sacks and used in medical preparations.

Fiddleheads as Food and Medicine

In her old doctoring journals, grandmother has it written that a tea made from dried fiddleheads is a dependable cure for constipation. In wintertime, when struck by this nuisance complaint, I remember her simmering a couple dried fiddleheads in a cup of boiling water until they were soft. The tea was strained, seasoned with salt and a dab of olive oil and administered before bedtime. A small dose of this old world concoction seemed to work wonders for moving the bowels.

Grandmother also conjured up a spring tonic out of fiddleheads, garlic, water and other secret ingredients that was said to cure whatever ailed you.  (Editor's note: This plant is best used in small doses, as overeating can cause diarrhea.)

North American aboriginal people are credited with being first to discover the nutritional value of fiddleheads. After surviving long winters with scarce greenery, spring fiddleheads were a much needed treat for the body, mind and soul. They were a highly-prized medicinal plant, said to act as a natural cleansing agent ridding the body of accumulated impurities and toxins. It is also reported that fiddleheads were an olden day treatment for high blood pressure, and eaten to ward off scurvy.

Fiddleheads are rich in iron, potassium, niacin, riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorus and vitamins A and C. Some folks compare them to asparagus while others say they taste like a cross between okra and broccoli. I find they are distinctive in taste and texture but if I had to liken them to anything, I’d say they taste like spring itself.

Cooked fiddleheads are delicious dotted with butter and sprinkled with fresh herbs and a splash of lemon juice or Tabasco sauce. They are well-suited for cheese, tomato or cream sauces and add delightful colour and taste to stir-fried dishes. For enlivening flavour and texture, add them to vegetable medleys, soups, stews and casseroles. Once you try the recipes below, I’m sure that goin’ fiddleheadin’ will become one of your favourite spring pastimes.

Note: Health Canada advises that fiddleheads should be cooked thoroughly before eating. Consuming raw or undercooked fiddleheads may cause ‘green apple’ symptoms including diarrhea, nausea and upset stomach.

To Freeze Fiddleheads for Winter Use

All of the recipes below can be made from frozen fiddleheads. They freeze very well so you might want to put some up for winter enjoyment. Fiddleheads will last in the freezer from one season to the next. To freeze, blanch cleaned fiddleheads in boiling lightly salted water for 1 minute. Drain, cool then put in air-tight bags and freeze.

Editor's Note from our Facebook page: Vital CPR - First Aid Training wrote "The Fiddleheads and Prawns recipe looks good! Just one thing, each spring, Health Canada issues a reminder about proper cooking and freezing of fiddleheads. E.g. Even if you plan on stir frying the fiddleheads, it's recommended to boil or steam them before adding them to the stir fry. 

RECIPES

Oriental Fiddleheads and Prawns

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Here’s a healthy, delicious dinner that is truly a gourmet feast. Good news is, it’s fast and super easy. Make it your meal after a fun day in the woodlands picking.

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 sweet yellow pepper cut into thin rings
• 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
• 2 cups prawns or shrimp, pan ready
• 2 cups of fiddleheads, boiled until fork tender
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato
• minced green onion for garnish
• 1 package of thin Chinese or angel hair noodles (about 16 ounces)

Fiddleheads with Sesame Seeds

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A quick and easy vegetable dish that’s good warm or cold.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups fiddleheads
• 2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 thinly sliced hot or sweet pepper, to suit taste
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• seasoned salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds (or slivered almonds)
• lemon slices to garnish

Violin Heads (tete-de-violon) with Pecans and Peppers

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Ingredients:

• 3 cups fiddleheads
• 1 roasted red pepper, cut into small cubes
• 3 Tbsp melted butter
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice and bit of grated zest
• 1 1/2 cups pecans

Green ‘Wheels’ and Cheese

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Tender little ‘wheels’ in creamy cheese sauce are a hit with little kids and big ones, too! This was my Grandfather’s favourite fiddlehead dish.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fiddleheads, boiled until fork tender
• cheese sauce

Old-Fashioned Potato and Fiddlehead Soup

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Ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 Tbsp butter or oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 3 cups hot chicken stock
• salt, pepper, dash of cayenne
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups fiddleheads, boiled until fork tender