Spring Beauties (warning: food porn)

I went for a walk today in Bagley Nature Area with Nathan and Essa Bessa Dog. We picked fiddlehead ferns and leeks. (Well the dog didn’t help, she is only good for her looks.) Sauteed quickly in butter, served with baguette, cheese, olives, fruit and wine. Oh HELL yeah.

Anyone else eat wild greens? What kinds? How do you cook them? The leeks turned out super sweet and buttery; the fiddleheads were slightly bitter. Perhaps they needed to be cooked a little longer.

24 Comments

davids

about 13 years ago

Beautiful! Fiddleheads will likely always taste a little bitter, I think--think of it as spring cleaning on your innards! My favorite is nettles, lightly steamed and eaten with a little lemon and salt. Bring on the spring greens!

wildgoose

about 13 years ago

Do you have a gathering guide? So we can look for some to try?  Or better yet, feel free to just bring a plate by next time.  I'm not real picky and these look great.

Lisa

about 13 years ago

From The University of Maine - Cooperative Extension website (http://umaine.edu/publications/4198e/):

"The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has investigated a number of outbreaks of food-borne illness associated with fiddleheads. The implicated ferns were eaten either raw or lightly cooked (sautéed, parboiled or microwaved), which was what caused a food-borne illness outbreak in British Columbia in 1990. Although a toxin has not been identified in the fiddleheads of the ostrich fern, the findings of this investigation suggest that you should cook fiddleheads thoroughly before eating (boil them for at least 10 minutes)."

Some nice suggestions for identifying and cooking this spring delicacies.

Bret

about 13 years ago

Are wild leeks the very common plant we see in the woods this time of the year?  Is there something similar looking we shouldn't eat?  Can one confirm it being a wild leek by crushing a stem and smelling for onion or garlic?  I love wild leeks but never knew what they looked like in the wild.  Thanks!

Chris

about 13 years ago

Bret...

Yes.
No.
Yes.

hbh1

about 13 years ago

Bret, wild leeks (or ramps) are the first thing to come up in the woods. The only similar looking plant is garden-escaped lilies of the valley (which are poisonous), though I personally don't think they look all that similar. The main identifier of the wild leek is the deep reddish coloring between the little bulb and the green part. And yes, the smell/taste.

Paul Lundgren

about 13 years ago

Here's are comparison photos (stolen from the Internet):

 

Wild leeks to the left, lilies of the valley to the right.

The wild leek photo is from a recent Minnesota Monthly article by Marie Flanagan about cooking with wild leeks -- "Ready for Ramps!"

maria

about 13 years ago

Edible Tulip: Rummaging for Ramps/Wild Leeks

Photo of wild leeks. They are everywhere in the woods right now. I've never tried the bulb part of the leek as described via this link. Sounds like work to dig the bitches up. I would think if you dig up the bulb that they couldn't grow back next year.

edgeways

about 13 years ago

I've also heard that fiddleheads should be very well cooked before consumption, even going so far as to change out the water in the middle of cooking.

Chris

about 13 years ago

I always see lilies later in the season, after the leeks are gone.  Has anyone seen them in the woods concurrently?

David Beard

about 13 years ago

It feels like this is somehow wrong, like picking flowers at Leif Erickson or something like that.  Probably not, but it feels like it, to me.

Lisa

about 13 years ago

The key is "sustainable harvest" of either of these spring delicacies, because digging the roots or breaking off the fiddleheads is killing that individual plant (or part of in the case of the ferns).

Don't take every plant in the bunch. Maybe 1 out of 10 or slightly higher ratio. But stop way before hitting the half way mark! Leave enough for others and for the plant to survive into the next year.

According to Petersons Edible Wild Plants:

It is recommended to cook both bracken and ostrich fern fiddleheads - more so with bracken (and for longer related to an enzyme in the raw fern that can destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine). There are other ferns in the area that are presumably edible, but more bitter.

Looks like many of the ferns are moving past harvesting stage - at least in the woods along Skyline, but the ramps(leeks) are still available.

rediguana

about 13 years ago

Young daylillies are great in salad. Unfortunately the deer think so also; they've taken a heavy toll on the ones in my neighborhood. Still enough to munch on, though.

Bret

about 13 years ago

Thanks everyone.  I took a sustainable harvest big enough for a meal for two!  They'll go nice with the yellow foot chanterelles we found last August.

Now, do we get morels up here?

pH

about 13 years ago

Casually foraging, I have only come across false morels around here.  Not too far away, the Root River valley is nice weekend trip in Spring season. Bring a bike along too, for some laid back pedaling along the river.

bluenewt

about 13 years ago

We got a truckload of mulch from Lake Superior Garden Center two years ago, and the following year morels grew up out of it.  Other than that I haven't seen a morel here.

zra

about 13 years ago

I have yet to get into any of the delectable cooking of what's inside, but Edible and Medicinal Plants of Minnesota and Wisconsin is a really interesting read.

hbh1

about 13 years ago

The main thing to digging ramps sustainably is to pick a big patch (not difficult) and to, as previously mentioned, take only a few from each bunch. They don't seem to have any problem propagating if you do that. 

They favor wet hillsides, and this makes digging them not too bad. You do need a good sharp garden trowel, and you do need to go a bit deep, or you miss the bulb. 

If you only pick enough for your personal consumption, you'll be alright. They are common enough around here that I don't worry too much. People are not (yet) inclined to the hard work involved, so I don't anticipate having to compete with others at my favorite patches. A lot of people find them to be not to their taste, anyway.

greg cougar conley

about 13 years ago

I have been enjoying ramps for a few weeks now, and I really love them on pizza, but they are good in so many ways. Fiddleheads are kind of hard to find in abundance, but are pretty good if cooked properly. I also like to eat (very young) dandelion greens in salads or sauteed, but most of the spring greens around here if too old impart a bitter flavor. Anyone ever eat wapato? It's a tuber that grows in swampy areas or next to water. I've never found any, but I guess others have. 

I guess morels really grow up in areas that have had fire go through, but I know there are some spots that they flourish all the time. Usually, if someone knows of those spots they aren't telling.

-Berv

about 13 years ago

If I'm reading this right, the morel of this story is that I should go take a leek.

zra

about 13 years ago

You're fired.

digit3

about 13 years ago

I had fiddleheads last night and they weren't bitter at all. My procedure is to boil them for four minutes, shock them in an ice bath afterwards, pat dry and then saute in 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 butter with a little garlic and then salt/pepper to taste.

Identifying the good eating ferns is easy. First, you don't want the ones that have a light "fuzz" all over them. The good ones may have a little brown "paper" on the head that can be easily rubbed off by hand. Other than being fuzz-free, the second way to ID them is to look for those ferns whose stalk has a deep rib similar to celery. 

Get 'em young and only take a couple out of each bunch you find.

Goody Wutherie

about 13 years ago

I can confirm that the morchella esculenta does indeed fruit in this city, and outside of the city. We're not there yet though.

Ask Louis Jenkins. He knows.

Shhhh...

Laura

about 13 years ago

Anyone tried boiled Stinging Nettle? Tastes similar to spinach and there maybe plenty of it growing in your backyard.

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