PUTNEY — Nearly everyone who has lived through a spring in Vermont has heard of fiddleheads. Identifying the edible ones and knowing how to prepare them is not such common knowledge.
Earlier this spring, a re-skilling workshop, sponsored by Transition Putney and guided by naturalist Gino Palmieri of Putney, taught 10 participants of all ages who wanted to know what plants are edible, more about gathering wild foods, and their preparation.
The most tender edible spring shoots are already too old to harvest. However, when you spot them this year, you can know where to go next spring for a uniquely Vermont spring treat.
With long pants and socks pulled up over the cuffs and tick spray applied against the inevitability of picking up ticks, the only additional requirement was a bag or basket to carry the harvests. Some of the locations were down steep ravines, but to the avid forager, alternatives can always be found.
Food can be gathered safely in many relatively wild habitats with reasonable precautions, like washing or blanching the food prior to cooking and eating, precautions that are no different from those recommended for other kinds of food. Washing one's hands between gathering and preparation is essential to avoid possible salmonella poisoning, or contamination from unknown sources.
While leaded gasoline for on-road vehicles was outlawed in 1996 in the U.S., off-road vehicles, including airplanes, farm equipment, racing cars, and marine engines, still use leaded fuel. For this reason, gathering wild foods where these emissions might be present should be avoided, as should harvesting near roadsides.
Palmieri emphasized to everyone that “the philosophy of gathering wild foods dictates respecting property rights and getting permission before foraging on anyone's land.”
“The quantities [harvested] should not be greater than 10 percent of a stand or population of any wild food,” he said.
Foraging for ferns
The first stop was down near the Connecticut River in what Palmieri described as a popular spot for local fiddlehead hunters.
Fiddleheads are the first, brilliant green shoots of the ostrich fern, aptly named because of their shape. They emerge from the ground as little bumps covered with a thin, brown protective coating, and can easily be missed among the dark leaves of the previous fall.
Walking slowly and looking carefully reveals these epicurean delights during the brief period when they are most prized, when they are still curled into tight spirals.
The spring food forager will discover these larger-stalked curlicues in mostly moist, shaded locations along slopes, rivers, and streams and in open wetlands, but they also can be found near overgrown, forested cellar holes, where they were once popular for landscaping.
The full-grown ostrich fern is a larger, taller, erect plant with gracefully arching fronds that are more prominent than those of other ferns. When young, the ostrich fern has generally fewer brown scales at the time of harvest.
Palmeiri cautioned to only take one or two young curls per plant, enough for a meal later. “A large group of people [indiscriminately harvesting] can wipe out any bed of plants,” he warned.
One couple, Teryn and Ian Levy, who are expecting their first child, have recently moved to Westminster from Idaho. A first-grade teacher at Westminster Elementary, Ian wanted to pass on what he learned to his students.
“We have a school garden that the kids plant every year. When I started last fall, we harvested carrots the kids had planted the previous year as kindergarteners. They just went wild,” he said, grinning.
“They were pulling up the stalks and dancing around and just having a great old time,” he added, noting that he could see the connection the kids were making with the Earth.
“We know a lot about food near Sandpoint [Idaho], but we aren't familiar with what's here,” Teryn Levy said.
Farther along the bank to where cattails grew, John Levi and his 6½-year-old daughter Janet, from Montague, Mass., watched attentively as Palmieri demonstrated digging for the cattail roots, an excellent source of fiber and starch “that can be added to anything.”
As Levi asked if the cattail would be easier to dig up in a wetter setting, Palmieri's trowel broke about a foot deep in the mud.
“Yeah,” replied Mark Morey, a friend of Palmieri's and founder of Deep Wilds, Vermont Wilderness School, and the Institute for Natural Learning. “You can sort of work the stalk back and forth and it will come up.”
Palmieri split the rhizome, or root, apart with his fingers displaying an almost translucent, white fiber. “That's what you're looking for,” he said.
The group hiked back up the steep embankment to the meadow above. Another delicacy, the garlic mustard plant, was nestled in the brush.
Like the fiddleheads and cattails, the round, green-leafed plant with a delicately pungent taste is common once you know what to look for.
The garlic mustard plant is one of several invasive plants Palmieri pointed out. Such species are introduced into the ecosystem and spread unchecked.
“It's good to know they taste so good. They can be added to salads or soups,” Palmieri said. While acknowledging how difficult it is to eradicate any invasive species once it's taken hold, “If you can't beat'em, join 'em,” he added.
True for almost all of the plants covered that morning, “Only the young plants are really good for eating,” Palmieri cautioned. “They get stringy and tougher the older they get.”
Before leaving the meadow, he pointed out several bunches of young nettles. “Grab the lower part of the stem [to avoid most of the stinging parts] of the plant,” Palmieri instructed, showing young Janet Levi how to pick the youngest, most tender shoots. “The sting goes away quickly.”
“Those can be steamed or added to soups,” thus relieving them of their sting, Palmieri advised.
Invasive, yet delicious
Next, the group visited a forest setting and sampled leaves and brilliant red berries from the wintergreen, which lives on an embankment under the shade of evergreen hemlock.
“They need the hemlock to grow. It provides the necessary shade the plant needs to survive,” Palmieri said.
He noted the hemlock tree is threatened by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, an invasive species of insect whose population is spreading northward and wiping out the hemlock trees in its path.
“It won't be long before it's here,” he said, sadly. “Then you will see [the wintergreen] disappear with it.”
Disease and invasive species create an ever-changing environment for the food forager, who must stay informed about vulnerable plants to avoid adding to the problem.
Moving farther into the forest, Palmieri led the group in search of black or “sweet” birch, whose bark emits a sweet, root-beery scent when scratched. The twigs from the tree can be steeped in hot water for a wonderfully delicate tea.
Palmieri said that black birch is known to act much like aspirin does so “if you are allergic to aspirin, don't drink the tea.”
In another location down the road, several more spring delicacies were revealed with Palmieri's tutelage.
Palmieri pointed out the difference between dandelions and coltsfoot: Both flowers are yellow, but the coltsfoot is one of the first plants to flower in the spring, is smaller, and has an outer ring of petals.
The dandelion blooms later, is generally larger, and has petals all the way to the center of the flower. The leaves of the dandelion are spiky, whereas the coltsfoot leaves are round.
Coltsfoot used as an herb can be used as a decongestant in a tea or tincture.
The whole dandelion plant is edible. The spiky leaves of the young dandelion are an excellent source of vitamin C and can be used in salads or steamed. The roots can be ground into a coffee-like tea, and the flower is a favorite for makers of homemade wine.
Again, Palmieri noted that coltsfoot is not native “but is useful,” like the daylily growing just a short distance away.
“They came with some of the first Europeans,” Palmieri said. “It's good to find a use for them because they grow so abundantly.”
The early daylilies rose in distinctive spiky, large-leaved clumps along roadsides and where humans live. Their roots, easily dug up, have bunches of tiny oval-shaped tubers that can be roasted, fried, or put in soups in “much the same way potatoes can be,” Palmieri told the group. “The young leaves can be harvested as well and, cut up, added to a soup.”
Tasting the bounty
The group reconvened at the Putney Community Center to learn how to clean and cut the roots, stems, and leaves. All the plants were first soaked and rinsed.
Young Janet Levi helped clean the burdock root. “Like this?” she asked, holding the tough, burly root in her hands and brushing it with the vegetable brush. Later, Palmieri showed her how to soak the fiddleheads and then gently brush off the brown outer skin.
Roots such as the cattail and daylily - and an additional offering that Palmieri brought with him, burdock root - were sliced and diced once they were cleaned and drained, along with the fiddleheads and daylily leaves that had been soaking.
The plan: to make a soup and stir-fry.
With minimal ingredients of garlic, onion, and olive oil, the fiddleheads were stir-fried, as were the daylily leaves combined with young nettles in a separate pan. Turnips, daylily leaves, and tubers, burdock root, and nettles were added to the soup.
Meanwhile, Palmieri revealed one last surprise: tropical ginger and native wild ginger roots. The native ginger root grows only in certain locations that are cool, shady, and moist and, as they are somewhat rare, Palmieri declined to reveal exactly where they could be found. “I found these on a friend's property,” he said.
Rounding out the menu were samples of “sweet” black birch tea and a sassafras tea.
When the food was cooked and everyone sat down to sample it, young Janet remarked, “It tastes better than it looks!”
Liz Rogers of Putney noted “the lily leaves [put in the soup] taste sweet.”
Palmieri reminded everyone that between gathering and cooking to always wash your hands, and “never gather more than you can eat.”
Asked if she learned anything, little Janet replied, “I learned what foods outdoors are good.”
She then went back to eating her soup.