# Fiddleheads



## GLS (Mar 30, 2016)

Are these fiddleheads desirable as a food source? Seems I recall some are, some aren't in the fern family. South Georgia coastal region.  Mature pines.


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## Bill Mc (Apr 3, 2016)

News from Maine


https://www.facebook.com/AroostookProblems/photos/a.544316662266489.121493.543733978991424/584604261571062/?type=3


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## Miguel Cervantes (Apr 3, 2016)

Here ya go Bill Mc. I think this is what you were trying to do.


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## Miguel Cervantes (Apr 3, 2016)

Every fern has fiddleheads, but from all the readin I've done the Ostrich Fern is the true edible fiddlehead, and not a native to GA that I'm aware of. 

http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/food/edibleplants/ostrichfern/


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## NCHillbilly (Apr 3, 2016)

From what I can see in the photo, those look like either cinnamon ferns or interrupted ferns. They are mildly toxic, and also pretty fuzzy and unappetizing. As Miguel said, the ostrich fern is the one usually eaten in the fiddlehead stage, but they don't grow in the South. Some folks eat bracken fern fiddleheads, but there can be toxicity issues that cause a severe vitamin B1 deficiency in the body.


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## John Porter (Apr 3, 2016)

Fiddleheads have a " V" on the inside of the stem. This is how we learned to identify them as a youngster.


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## Full Draw McGraw (Apr 3, 2016)

Nibble it a little. Don't eat it if it tastes bitter at all. 
I would only ever do this with ferns as i don't know of any that are so toxic that a little nibble will hurt you, don't do this with mushrooms or any other wild plants.


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## Bill Mc (Apr 3, 2016)

My internet friend in Maine sent me some canned fiddleheads. Taste like spinach.


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## GLS (Apr 7, 2016)

Thanks, I'll leave them be.  OTOH, my daughter cooked up some stinging nettles a while back and they were delicious. Gil


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