An edible instrument!

In the spring, many people in Eastern Canada visit a wooded area to harvest fiddleheads. Fiddleheads or Fiddlehead greens are the furled fronds of a young fern harvested for use as a vegetable. Left on the plant, each fiddlehead would unroll into a new frond (circinate vernation)


Why are they named in that way? The fiddlehead resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end (the “head”)of a stringed instrument, such as a violin (“fiddle”). It is also called a “crozier”, after the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd's crook.

They are the tasty new sprouts of woodland ferns, and they are harvested early in the black season before the frond has opened and reached its full height, they are cut fairly close to the ground.

Grocery stores in Canada may stock frozen fiddleheads alongside other frozen vegetable , but they are only available regionally in some supermarkets and restaurants.

Canadians smile when they see the green, curly fern tips. Not only are they delicious, but they're a special treat as they can only get them during a short window of time each year. Because of that, it has become in a symbol of hope and happiness because among other things, this peculiar aliment predicts the beginning of the good weather. As a result, Canadians have even dedicated a monument to the Fiddleheads in the Saint John´s art centre, in New Brunswick.