Fuel Your Body

Spring’s first crops

By Joanna Gertler | June 10, 2011

It’s now June, but Spring’s first crops are now in evidence at your market and grocery store. I speak of thin stalks of rhubarb, asparagus and fiddleheads. As with other, local foods, their growing season is short and they’re not available for long (although it’s possible to find asparagus from other sources almost year-round at larger supermarkets).

Of these three, probably fiddleheads are the most curious and have the shortest growing season. The fiddlehead is the coiled end of a fern and so named, because it looks like the end of the violin, aka: fiddle.

Fiddleheads contain antioxidants, are a source of Omega 3 and Omega 6, and are high in iron and fibre. They are also low in sodium, but rich in potassium, so there are good reasons to try them if you haven’t already. Having only encountered them in North America, I was surprised to find that fiddleheads have been part of traditional diets in much of Northern France since the beginning of the middle ages, and in Asia as well as Native Americans cuisines for centuries.

Fiddleheads are part of the Indonesian diet and are also found in Japanese and Korean cuisine. They have been found in pickled in the north eastern states of India as well as used in other regional dishes found in Assam, Darjeeling and Sikkim. In North America, the fiddlehead on our dinner plate usually comes from the ostrich fern. They are a traditional dish of northern New England, USA, and of Quebec and the Maritimes in Canada. The Canadian village of Tide Head, New Brunswick, calls itself the "Fiddlehead Capital of the World."

Fiddleheads aren't cultivated and thus only available for a short period in the spring. When picking fiddleheads, three tops per plant is the recommended harvest and as each plant only produces seven tops that turn into fronds, over-picking will kill the plant.

Here’s a couple of recipes from epicurious.com: