How to harvest fiddleheads, West Virginia’s lesser-known forageable vegetable

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — You’ve probably heard of collecting morels and ramps, and maybe even ginseng in West Virginia , but what about fiddleheads?

Fiddleheads or ostrich ferns are a type of edible fern that grow naturally in West Virginia and much of the northeastern United States as well as Canada and Alaska. The ferns sprout in April in shady woodsy areas near water, according to the Old Farmers Almanac , and must be harvested before the fronds open.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture’s (WVDA) “Edible Wild Plants” guide says that fiddleheads are “one of the easiest plants to identify and collect as food.” They are bright green and grow in clumps of about six ferns.

As far as taste, people describe them as being somewhere between asparagus, green beans and broccoli stem. When cooking fiddleheads, they can be treated similarly to these similar vegetables as well. The WVDA recommends rubbing the fuzz off of them, boiling them in plain water for 30-45 minutes and seasoning them with salt and butter.

Although fiddleheads are fairly easy to identify, make sure you double-check that your harvests are in fact ostrich ferns before you consume them because some similar-looking ferns can be toxic, according to food blog Fearless Eating .

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