Spring Foraging

While out on a walk today with Audi, my sister, and our dogs, I did a little spring foraging. The bracken ferns* are extending their fiddleheads and the dandelion greens are nice and tender this time of year. After our walk, I rinsed the dandelion greens and sauteed them with a little garlic and lime. For the ferns, I cut the stems to about two inches below the fiddleheads, and rinsed them thoroughly, rubbing off the chaff as I did so. You are then supposed to soak the ferns overnight in lightly salted water but being impatient, I skipped that step. Instead, I threw the fiddle heads into my Korean hot pot with a little bit of peanut oil, fish sauce, soy sauce, and water and let them simmer for about ten minutes. Normally I would cook them with sesame oil and no fish sauce in the Korean style but I was out. They were delicious anyway! Fern has a rich flavor which some gourmands say reminds them of asparagus. The flavor goes well with cheeses and can be used as a substitute in any recipe calling for asparagus. I prefer them the Korean way though.


This is a really great site about foraging in Michigan, with descriptions, recipes, links and lots of pictures. You can also order foraged food from them, in case you are wary of going out to the woods yourself.



*Although bracken fern fiddleheads are delicious, they should not be eaten regularly because they have been known to cause stomach cancer in laboratory tests. Korea, where I first tried bracken and where it is eaten regularly by itself and in dishes such as bibimbop, has one of the highest stomach cancer rates in the world. Look for Ostrich fern or other edible species if you want to enjoy fern more frequently. Click here for a full description of edible varieties.