In the springtime, the residents of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and northeastern Maine are not nearly as distracted as the rest of us by nature's fanfare of seasonal bloomers. At the same time that they're admiring their daffodils, they're also keeping a close eye on their ferns. Oh sure, these folks are well aware that ferns add a marvelous texture to their landscapes and gardens. But that's not quite the reason for their vigilance. You see, they've gotten a taste of the feral fiddlehead-and are hungering for more.
Fiddleheads are the tightly coiled young fronds, or croziers, of ferns.
They are shaped like the ornamental spiral on the tuning end of a fiddle, hence the common name. J. Melvin Nash's Cooking North America's Finest Gourmet Fiddleheads has the whole scoop on fiddlehead culture and cuisine. Nash explains that the Maliseet Indians, native to what is now New Brunswick, beat everybody to the plate. They even used it symbolically to mark their canoes, clothing, and artifacts. The ostrich fern grows worldwide in the north temperate zone, favoring lightly shaded woodlands and moist, alluvial soils.