Well Preserved

They`re not here yet – but they will be soon – and they will disappear just as fast.

Fiddleheads are a big deal around here.  Dana loves them and I feel connected to my family when I eat them – my Mother is From Nova Scotia and these delightful little dudes and dudettes are staples in the Maritimes.  To cook them fresh is to briefly steam them; there`s nothing quite as good as a well-cooked vegetable and nothing quite as bad as it`s overcooked brethren.

Fiddleheads are essentially young ferns.  Make sure you `straighten` one out some time – you`ll get a far better understanding of what`s going on.  Fiddleheads disappear almost as quickly as they arrive as they are merely a small stop on the ride from sprout to fern.  Most of them will stretch toward the sun within a few weeks and lose their fractal appearance.

Once again, you can forage or buy these.  Some grocery stores carry them but they make a grand entrance at many farmer`s markets (including Wychwood, Brickworks and the St Lawrence Market in Toronto).  Foraging has obvious advantages ranging from price to personal satisfaction and one major disadvantage – you have to clean a small `scummy`husk off of them.  They are typically sold clean.  If you`ve never had them before, buy lots.  Lightly steamed with butter – I`m tempted to call them a better asparagus but I love it too much to do so. 

We haven`t pickled them before but I`ve heard great results from others – including local farmer Mark Trealout.  A considerable way to improve your preserving abilities is to share your successes (and struggles) with others and listen openly to theirs.  I will not have enough time in my lifetime to preserve all of the possible goodness that I want to so learning from others, trading jars and stories is an essential shortcut to a yummy end.  Mark had great success with his fiddleheads and they look stunning in his jars.

Many people think of pickles as limited to cucumbers.  There are so many other options to explore.  We pickled 6 pounds of garlic in September and we`re left with 3 jars – 1 is destined to a dear friend who loves garlic and if I don`t bring it to him soon he may have to wait until next year.  Pickled beans and asparagus are other sure-fire favourites.  They are great as a side dish, a treat from the fridge or added to a caesar.  We will definitely be trying fiddleheads this year.

Finding a good recipe can be difficult.   Untested recipes flood the internet and some are outright dangerous.  We are seeing more and more recipes for jams and chutneys that include considerable amounts of oil – in the best case these jars will likely spoil – in the worse case they may hurt someone.  Canning with tested recipes and doing your research (we introduced the National Center for Home Food Preservation here) is your best approach to guarantee safety and success.  We are very picky when we choose recipes off the internet – most come from books or friends who we believe have the knowledge and experience to guide us.  Ernest Miller (from California) is a certified master food preserver who co-runs a site called PreserveNation which can also provide some good guidance.

I have decided to use a recipe from the Internet this year for our fiddleheads.  The source is an author named Langdon Cook; he wrote a book called the Fat of the Land which I am currently reading and adore.  Mr. Cook was an executive at Amazon.com before he decided to leave the corporate world and move off the grid to a small cabin with his wife and son.  His writing is great, informed and humble as he shares his successes and struggles while foraging in the Pacific Northwest. I believe he has the experience and knowledge which is why I`ll go with this one.  And his results look stunning!  Rather than steal a recipe, here`s a link.  Check out his blog – it`s a lot of fun.

Well that`s all for today`s post in our Preserving Spring series.  We are continuing to write one per day as a follow-up to the article in Edible Toronto.  We`re continuing to do one-a-day until complete and you can see the entire series by clicking here.