By David Fuller, Extension Agriculture, and Non-Timber Forest Merchandise Skilled
Fiddleheads from ostrich ferns are an iconic spring edible in Maine. Native People had been the primary to eat them, and their reputation continues to this present day. Fiddleheads are so named due to the similarity in form to the curled scroll of a violin. Fiddleheads are also called crosiers or croziers, after the crook-shaped pastoral employees of a bishop. Within the Passamaquoddy and Maliseet languages, the phrase for fiddlehead is “mahsus”; in Penobscot, they’re “mahsosi.”
Fiddleheads are essential to Maine’s financial system, with pickers, retailers, and woodland homeowners incomes further earnings from them every spring. Fiddleheads are additionally an essential a part of Maine’s tradition and heritage. The double-curve motif that Wabanaki individuals generally use to embellish paintings bears a robust resemblance to a fiddlehead. Generations of Maine individuals have made fiddlehead harvesting a ceremony of spring. It’s essential to know which fern fiddlehead to select and the way a lot to select in order that this invaluable useful resource may be loved for generations to return.
Reprinted with permission from College of Maine Cooperative Extension, bulletin #2540, Ostrich Fern Fiddleheads, Matteuccia struthiopteris extension.umaine.edu/publications/2540e/. For extra movies from the College of Maine Cooperative Extension, subscribe to the College of Maine’s YouTube web page.