Oh Fiddlehead! Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I’d post this photo just because these things are soooo green. What are they you ask? Well, they’re called fiddlehead ferns and I spotted them recently at the Far West Fungi shop at the Ferry Building.

It was unusual to see them at Far West, 1) because it’s not really a fungus but a fern and 2) it looks like curled up snails. But if you believe Wikipedia (and really, who doesn’t?), it’s supposedly cooked like a vegetable in Asian countries like Indonesia and Taiwan and in Native American dishes in North America. (Also, if you believe Wikipedia, then lightly cooking the fiddleheads is a bad thing because you can get sick if they’re not cooked properly.)

The fiddleheads are the sprouts of the fern before they unfurl, which gives them that curly look. It’s not something that’s farmed, but when found and harvested, you’re supposed to just cut off two to three fiddleheads and not all because that can kill the entire plant. (Gee, I guess I did learn something from Wikipedia.)

I’m not going to be rushing to my condo’s garden to look for fiddleheads among the fern plants, but it’s nice to hear on Earth Day that some people don’t waste anything on this planet and a use can be found for anything naturally grown — a good lesson to keep in mind as caretakers for this world.