Ostrich Fern Fiddle Head

 The ostrich ferns in our area are finally starting to emerge. We have been checking one of our favorite foraging spots for several weeks now and were starting to think the ferns were never going to come up. The pic on the left shows a typical ostrich fern stalk from last year which helps to locate them.You can see from it's shape why the fern has the name it does,the stalk resembling a ostrich plume. The fiddle heads are emerging at it's base. The pic to the right shows the tell tale mark of the deeply indented stalk which looks like a stalk of celery and identifies this as the edible ostrich fern fiddle head. The fern is not edible after the fiddle head unfurls.Ostrich fern fiddle heads can be used in any recipe that uses asparagus.

Ann has made a very good cream of asparagus soup substituting fiddle heads for the asparagus.
Last year we canned quite a few and this year we are trying drying them.
This pic shows a small part of a patch we like to pick. It is on a river flood plain and has very rich but sandy soil. This patch cover a couple of acres so we can usually pick all we want.