Anita Price and a basket of fiddleheads

The fiddleheads are ready to pick!

We’ve been desperate for something locally-grown, fresh and green for weeks now, so I was delighted when Anita Price of FORAgE PEI called and offered to take me on an old-fashioned wild food hunt.

Fiddleheads are the uncurled fronds of the Ostrich Fern (mattteuccia struthiopteris) that begin to appear around late April or early May. Called ‘fiddleheads’ because they resemble the head of a fiddle, they grow in   clumps from a shallow root ball. You can find them along river and stream banks, at the edge of woodlands and in marshy areas. But I’m not telling you where we found ours–go find your own.

Know Your Ferns

Ostrich Fern is on the left, other (non-edible) fern on right

There are many kinds of ferns, but only the Ostrich Fern is recommended for consumption. (That’s why it is important to have someone like Anita handy!) She showed me the tell-tale signs of a good fiddlehead hunting ground, dried foliage from last year.

Pick Quick

The fiddleheads have to be picked when they are very young and still tightly coiled–it takes only a matter of a day, or even a few hours, for the chance to harvest to come and go. It was cold and raining when we set off on our food hunt. When we spotted last year’s dried fronds, we lept out of the car in search of new growth. We found clumps of baby ferns popping up all over in a narrow band of field just alongside woods and a stream. We used paring knives to cut the heads, but they easily broke off by hand. We only harvested about 1/3 of the tender shoots, leaving many to grow and ensure a future harvest. The fiddleheads sometimes had a papery brown skin over them that we easily brushed away. Our basket filled up quickly.

Tiny fern heads just emerging.

Highly Valued…in Some Places

I have seen fiddleheads in the produce section of the grocery store and read that Canadian fiddleheads are exported to Europe as a specialty food item. Evidently the Ostrich Fern resists cultivation, so wild fiddleheads are an expensive treat for some. We Islanders are lucky, though–a free supper is right here for the picking. Now that I have a good supply, I will be trying several fiddlehead recipes in the restaurant for the next few weeks. I’ll be reporting on the yummy results soon!

Thanks again, Anita Price of FORAgE PEI, for your willingness to share your knowledge of wildcraft and for keeping the tradition of foraging for food alive on Prince Edward Island.

An abundance of ferns, but too late for harvest