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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

You Eat Ferns?!

Fiddlehead ferns are in season, and their season is short, so get some while you can.  You may have seen them in the markets, for sale in the local vegetable section for $4.99-5.99/lb, and thought "what am I supposed to do with those?"  Well, you are definitely supposed to eat them.
Cook them up like you would asparagus (a little olive oil, salt, and pepper) and enjoy them as one of your vegetables at dinner.  Before cooking them, however, be sure to soak or blanch them before cooking to get the brown papery covering and little fern pieces out of the frond; it's good to snip off the brown ends, as well.
Fiddleheads, rinsed and ready for cooking.
For more information, this page on Valley Locavore has some great info.  You might also be able to get a flier at Atkins Market (where I originally got my information a couple of years ago), or there's an article from the DHGazette titled "Fresh from the Valley" (from just April 9 -- and I started drafting this article on Sunday...).

Happy fern foraging & feasting -- they really are quite tasty!
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1 comment:

Local Greenie said...

Yes! I've always enjoyed these and they're really underappreciated. They have a great not-too-soft texture when sauteed.