Fiddle Heads

Fiddle Heads; Very easy to identify.

One of the easiest plants to identify in the spring is the fiddle head fern.

Edible Fiddle Head Fern by Joel Kven

These edible ferns also known as the Ostrich fern start to poke out of the ground in April. They tend to be in moist areas and only last a short time.  You will tend to find the fern on the edge of swamps and in areas that get partial sunlight.

 Be watchful of the ferns that you see with the white fuzz as they are not the edible Ostrich Fern and you may be sitting down to a very bitter meal. The basic identification for these are the following description

• A green, about quarter-sized, coiled vegetable with, 
• A onion skin hanging off the sides.

The picture below is the inedible fern.  Notice the white fuzz, this is a solid sign of a fern not to pick. 

Photo by Bren Roy

When you have picked enough of these for a meal There are many sites that you can find for recipes I find sauteing them is my favorite.