Fiddleheads

[geepy]

Wish they grew in Fl. I'd try them. I love eating wild things. It's only natural. And good for ya.

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:
awesome! They are more predominate in the north than the south. I think the prefer colder weather. They can survive the deep south weather, but I have never ran into a wild fiddle head here in Alabama though I have heard they grow here.

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:
oh don't worry, Floridians has a huge abundance available to ya'll that the rest of the country can only dream of having.

 

[geepy]

I didn't think they grew here? Now I'm going to go hunting.

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
See, that I didn't know. That's why I figured I'd check Wikipedia to see what species are eaten. And those species don't seem to be hard to find. But if you're planting them yourself, I'd imagine you'd need to start with a bunch to be able to harvest any. I didn't realize that the "safe" number is only three fiddleheads per clump. No wonder they're such a treat!

Well it is more than just growing perennials that careful harvesting is important. when harvesting in the wild you should never take everything from an entire plant either. It often kills the plant or renders it unable to reproduce.

One of my earliest lessons as a child was being taken into the forest and my mother showing me how and what to find and saying to only take only one of only four to seven plants, if you must harvest a whole plant (it depends on the plant and your personal judgement on if you take one in four or one in seven), and if you can not find enough plants to take one in that number, then you don't harvest any. If you only find three plants, those may be the last three plants alive there.

if you only harvest part of a plant, like a fruit or leaves, you harvest less than 25 %. Save the seeds from the fruit you eat and toss them back out where you found them. Never harvest from the same place, clump, colony, consecutively. Always change up. If I harvest cattail shoots from a pond near my house one spring, then the next spring I'm taking them from another pond, or at least from another side of said pond depending on the number of cattails and the size of the pond involved.

It's just good stewardship.

 

[KristyHall]

Quote:
oh no i didn't mean fiddle heads! I meant other plants. sorry. fiddle heads don't like the Florida heat.

 

[geepy]

That's what I thought. We Floridians do have alto of other stuff that grows natural.

 

[greeneggsandham]

How would one tell if a fiddlehead belongs to the ostrich fern? I know the ferns I have seen grow along the stream in the back have to be a good 3 ft tall, but I never thought to ID them.