May 20, 2006
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Fiddlehead Picking & Other Stuff!
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Late May is the time for “fiddleheads“ in Maine and we are blessed with an enormous patch of them
(we are also cursed with 25 gazillion blackflies but that is neither here nor there)
The season can be brief; sometimes they are ”done” within 2-3 weeks. We picked about 5 pounds today and will pick a great deal more to freeze before the week passes.
for dinner tonight: fiddleheads with butter and salt
(and other stuff, though none of it as sexy).
ETA; they taste like asparagus and spinach in an earthy way. The croziers/tips (sp?) of the Ostrich fern are the only ones that people eat; there are many, many others but the majority of them are risky to eat.
Project #1
The Floor Before
this morning I sanded about 1/4 of the family room
all the while telling myself how very glamorous I must look in my dirty terrycloth capris with my bum hanging out all over tarnation.
The lies get me through.
this afternoon I will apply a coat of stain and the first coat of polyurethane will go on after the kids are asleep. I will do the rest of the room in a similarly sluggish fashion; it’s slow but it will get done.
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Sniff, Sniff
I was going through old pictures and papers and found this,
A story Jesse wrote me when he was barely three (Daddy helped).
It is one of my favorite things in this world.
tissue, please.
Comments (30)
Fiddleheads – You intrigue me. What do they taste like?
Jesse is meltingly sweet!
Love the story! He looks so young in those pictures!
I have only read about fiddleheads in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan, by Stephen King. I was happy to get to SEE some, at least in pictures! Thank you! I am curious, too, about their flavor. Can you describe it?
Oh, the floor…wow, that’s a big project! Good luck!
I have never heard of fiddleheads before. Now I want to try one!! How did they get their name, they don’t really look like fiddles. Do fiddles even have heads?? Very interesting.
Cute pictures of the kiddo, mommy i hope I love you soon. that’s too cute!!!
Fiddleheads? They sound (and look) like something that perhaps belongs in an Alice In Wonderland tale… I have never had one, and am curious indeed, of the taste and texture.
The Floor is going to be wonderful! I think your home looks and feels warm and cozy and freshly redone wooden floors will make it even more so!
:sunny::sunny::sunny:The story to you from your sweet Jesse… priceless!:sunny::sunny::sunny::sunny:
Never heard of Fiddleheads either, hmmm!!:(
An almost three year old Jesse is tooooo cute! What a great story.
I am going to keep my eyes open for fiddleheads now.
You are so productive! The floor is looking terrific. Happy finishing!
The floor is looking great. I’m amazed by all you get done. And I’ll join the ranks of those who’ve never heard of fiddleheads. When I was reading on my subscription page, before I clicked over to see the pictures, I thought The Fiddleheads was the name of a folk music group in Maine. And I was wondering why you were going to eat them for dinner.
I love 3 year olds and their stories. :heartbeat: Happy sanding!
wow, I’ve never heard of fiddleheads?! (except, like Callie, I thought maybe it was going to be a band or an annual festival of fiddles that comes through town…) What do they taste like? I’m imagining something like okra…
first…. what are ficklheads? never heard of them! why is this!??
second of all… guess what my dearest loveliest husband bought for me for our anniversary (btw he nevr buys me things!) MY VERY OWN DIGI CAMERA!!!!!
I had to tell YOU first!!!! hahaha I’m so excited! (“the photographer’s wife gets a camera” should be the headline!)
third(ly)… the floors look great! But i am so sure you must be on some for of heavy narcotic to have enough energy to do that!
oops… I mean FIDDLEheads. silly me.
Color me surprised. I had *no* idea those things were edible. I just thought they looked cool.
Jesse is such a sweetie! That story is beyond precious.
The fiddleheads freak me out. Like my body covered in little spiders freaked out. I have no idea why.
The floor looks fabulous! Please tell me all about it! We have an original (built in 1912) hardwood floor that is in terrible shape. I’d love to do it myself. Are you putting anything on it to “seal” it? When the kids spill liquids on our floor you can go down into the basement and find a puddle on the floor.
Jesse is adorable! But you knew that.
DH is a big fan of fiddleheads.
I’m not.
He ate a pound and a half for supper one night last week!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm fiddleheads…….. We just had some this past week up at my ILs farm. We had to buy them though. The ostrich ferns were all up completely. I will have to go up earlier next year for the harvest. I did bring back a pile of ferns for my garden though, so next year I can have my own!
My sister is freaked out by fiddleheads. No really. I saw them for the first time in a Martha Stewart magazine. My sister, who is a good deal older and wiser of course, said she couldn’t eat them because it seemed like canabalism or maybe infantacide or was it patricide. I can’t remember. Are some of them poisonous?
“I hope you come home soon”? OMG the story is priceless. Hand me a kleenex!
Fiddleheads look delicious! They are made all the more so by the fact that you picked them yourself, right?
I was secretly hoping you’d post pictures of yourself in your dirty capris.
that picture of roo from the last post is beautiful!!!!!! she’s so lovely
i’ve never even heard of fiddleheads. but i’m guessing i’d like them if they taste like asparagus and spinach..my two favorite veggies! too bad we can’t get those suckers in ny
Fiddleheads are a delicacy here, as well. I’ve never tried them.
Jesse is adorable.
The floor looks awesome!! They used to sell fiddleheads at the grocery store I worked at in high school — never tried them though!!
What a cute story!! That’s literature right there– unique sentence structure, extensive vocabulary, and a metaphoric title. He won’t be understood in his own time, but he’ll be legendary someday.
yum! i love wild food! that floor will be so beautiful when you are done! what wood is it? do you know? most of the wood in our house is fir.
those pictures are So Sweet.
I think the closest answer we here in the south would have for fiddleheads would be poke salad. It’s one of those weird plants that you have to be careful with, because once the stems start turning red they become poisonous. I know you can trim the stems off the leaves and so long as you boil it with several changes of water it’ll be safe to eat. (of course, after boiling you fry it with bacon fat so it’s rather tasty)
We did a floor like that once. They are a lot of hard work. You did a wonderful job. It looks very even.
If I were a child in the meadow; and I found those fiddle heads, I would name them “faerie food”! Love to you and yours my friend!
LOL no ones heard of fiddleheads! we used to pick them ourselves in VT too, I miss them soo much! mm tasty, perfect w/ ramps!
Do you have ramps/ wild leeks, too Julie?
I love the story. Jesse looks a bit like my Rowan in that pic.. its soo sweet. You have such a beautiful, loving family.
:sunny: You make me smile! The floor is gonna be great! You are such a hard working mama. Those pics of Jesse are so sweet! You are so blessed!
That is a big project to take on – go you!!
I’ve seen these here. But let me be honest, they freak me out!
Jesse has been cool his entire life, hasn’t he?
That floor will be amazing! I can’t wait to see it.
Wow, I’ve never heard of fiddleheads. They sound good- enjoy! And you go girl, sanding the floors and everything!
I never heard of fiddleheads either, or that the tips of ferns were edible.
Because I have dial up the pics of Jesse’s story won’t load. : (