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another tasty score

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
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Fiddleheads saute'd in smoked olive oil and butter with a couple of thinly sliced green onions and a pinch of red pepper flakes. co-staring bacon cheese venison burger featuring home made bacon, smoked peppered American cheese and Havarti. fuck Morels!!!
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
Jamie, does this plant grow in certain areas if so, where? It looks very similar to asparagus, are they related and does it taste similar?
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
these are the coiled up fronds of Ostrich ferns. they like shady places with adequate water and drainage, but ferns are pretty hearty and will grow most anyplace. not all fern "fiddleheads" are edible, though, so be careful. these are only around for a very short time. cut these when the fronds first start growing, before they uncoil. you want the heads to be wound up tight. you might have them growing in a flower bed at your house. do not eat them raw. blanch and saute'.

can you imagine a bunch of kitchen hack hunter-gatherers with their own cooking show cooking deer, squirrels, ramps and such? what a riot! err,a, disaster, I mean. :eek:
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
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these are the coiled up fronds of Ostrich ferns. they like shady places with adequate water and drainage, but ferns are pretty hearty and will grow most anyplace. not all fern "fiddleheads" are edible, though, so be careful. these are only around for a very short time. cut these when the fronds first start growing, before they uncoil. you want the heads to be wound up tight. you might have them growing in a flower bed at your house. do not eat them raw. blanch and saute'.

can you imagine a bunch of kitchen hack hunter-gatherers with their own cooking show cooking deer, squirrels, ramps and such? what a riot! err,a, disaster, I mean. :eek:

Youtube. I bet it's worth a couple hundred thousand subscribers anyway.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I was a little late on these last year, but the Ostrich ferns in our flower beds are up. I have two or three dozen of these and they are very happy. they were here when we got here 19 years ago and I wanted to get rid of them as they were growing up through the middle of the deck. Nancy wouldn't hear of it. she moved several of the crowns and they have propagated themselves for the most part. I cut enough for us to eat tonight. in a few days I'll be able cut this many more. they started so fast that many of the fronds are already opened up too much to eat. they need to be coiled up tight to be at their best. this is what they look like when they are just getting started growing. I cut the three tall ones after taking the picture. the back of my house is two feet from this fern. these aren't exactly "wild" edibles, but not the kind of thing you grow in a vegetable garden, either.

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here are some that have opened up a bit too much to eat. to the left and at the top of the frame are Ramps that I transplanted a year ago. they went to seed and came back up. in a few years, hopefully, they will have spread themselves out enough that we can dig some. I transplanted about 30 clumps like these to our property two weeks ago. I'll be quite happy if they grow and spread in the woods there.

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some are bigger than a quarter, some smaller than a dime. just need to be tightly coiled.

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jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
Dang it! I knew I recognized them somewhere and it was this thread! I saw a bunch of fiddleheads down at my mom’s place yesterday but I couldn’t think of what they were... much less edible. I sure squandered that opportunity!
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
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I sent him a pic of a bunch while mushroom hunting. Not the right variety of course or I would have given them a try. Hopefully your mom has the right ferns.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
last year Nancy and I dug up about two dozen mature Ostrich ferns from her folks place. they want rid of them, were happy to expand our fern population. they all survived, and we ate some of them this year. Nancy dug about 30 more yesterday when she went to see her mother. we don't have any place else to put them here. We're going to try to cultivate a patch of them in the woods on our property.

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I just noticed the above pic, in the back ground, above the back end of the atv, there is a large tree with a bunch of white stuff on it. the white stuff is the remnants of the chicken of the woods I cut off of the "mushroom tree" last fall.

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Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
my escapades in collecting wild edibles just keeps getting better. there really is a wondrous and bountiful garden right under our noses. what started with picking berries and gathering common mushrooms is getting more interesting. I added another tasty wild plant to my plate today. common Milkweed. the young shoots are easy to identify, easy to harvest without killing the plant. the leaves are edible, but I've read that they are not as good as the stalk, so I cleaned and cooked enough to get a taste. I'll wait and see if either of us experience any ill effects from eating them before I cook more. They are very, very good. sort of like a cross between asparagus and green bean. mild, sweet and hint of hint of asparagus. my go-to manual for wild edibles said to boil them for 20 minutes and eat with salt and pepper, butter if you like. 10 minutes would have been more than enough boiling to make them tender. these turned to mush. next time, I'm going to high heat roast them just like I would asparagus. maybe steam and sautee like fiddleheads also. we have an abundance of these around the yard, many growing in the grass we mow. they seem to keep pretty well as Nancy cut these last week before mowing. got a bunch more to cook. milkweed is coming up right now. go get some.

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