Lifelong forager shares tips for fiddleheading
With water levels subsiding along river valleys, ostrich ferns have begun poking their little heads out of the ground and foragers are scouring the flood plains in search of furled, green delicacies.
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Fiddleheads growing along the Nashwaak River in the Fredericton area.(Kristen Gallant/Fredericton Tourism) comments
With water levels subsiding along river valleys, ostrich ferns have begun poking their little heads out of the fertile ground.
It s fiddlehead season.
Foragers are scouring their traditional caches or venturing into new valleys in search of the spring delicacy one Twitter user astutely described as vegetarian escargot for its mouth-watering flavour and snail-like, leafy spiral.
fuki (butterbur),
warabi (bracken root),
kajime (seaweed) or
kihada (amur cork)? These are just some of the obscure foods that have lost the battle to the prettier, plastic-wrapped vegetables of Japan’s supermarket shelves today. But we are reintroduced to these native delights, which were once staple foods in ancient Japan, in the new book “Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes” by Winifred Bird.
Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes. Available from March 30.
In ancient Japan, the population’s diet was much more varied and deeply rooted (apologies for the pun) to the land. It was often based on hunting and gathering of