fiddlehead ferns – Insectamonarca's Blog

Wild Edibles Club First Excursion

The weather in northwest Wisconsin is below average and I am still heating my home in Minong. It is a wet and rainy season this spring and impossible to start a garden under these circumstances.

debora1 — Debora with gathered leek greens.

My friend Debora and I went out to the Washburn County forest at 5 p.m. last evening to a favorite haunt between Hayward and Minong in search of leeks also known as ramps. There were large colonies of leeks and yellow trout lily. The lily bulbs were quite small and we decided not to gather them outside of a few that came along with the leeks when we dug in the deep, composted and compacted forest soil. I tried a few yellow trout lily bulbs and they tasted like raw potatoes.

I never saw as many trout lilies in my life.

yellow trout lily — Yellow trout lily in bud

This was certainly a bountiful colony stretching across the forest floor in the near and far away woods.

The leeks are difficult to dig when growing in large clumps among other woodland plants. One needs to separate them out after digging. Leek leaves and bulb are both edible. Yellow trout lily on the other hand only provides an edible bulb. The fun is in the gathering.

I have learned over the years that it takes three times the work to clean, sort, cut roots and save leaves after gathering.

Leek leaves need to be dried by using paper towels and placing single leaves in a tray, separated by layers of paper towel sheets between each row of leaves. Place the leaves in the freezer for a few minutes to start the freezing process.

Then remove the trays from the freezer and transfer leek leaves with paper sheets intact to a ziplock freezer bag. Be sure to mark the bag in order to identify what you have preserved. Believe me, after a while, most foods will look the same after they have been in the freezer for any period of time.

Debora noticed something else in the woods and went to explore what it was. She discovered emerging what we thought were ostrich ferns.

It was only later I learned that the fern was cinnamon (Osmunda cinnemomea) or interrupted fern (O. claytonia). I have gathered fiddlehead ferns before and I enjoy bracken fern as fiddleheads. Now I know why I prefer them.

For one the ferns left a stain on the plastic bag we were using. I should have been alerted then that something was wrong. Then I tried to eat one that I blanched and it tasted terrible. Even an experienced gatherer like myself can get confused. Always research before gathering. We should have carried the Forager’s Harvest or Nature’s Garden by Samuel Thayer to the gathering site and verified the species before picking. I had left the books in the van. Live and learn!

Fiddlehead ferns of cinnamon and interrupted fern have a hairy covering and simply are not worth taking a risk. Don’t ever use either one. Seek true ostrich or bracken ferns for wild edibles. They are delicious and you will be well pleased.

Another group of wild edible gatherers are going to another forest where Happy Tonics has a wild butterfly habitat with land use for the habitat from the DNR. I know we have bracken fern out there in the clearing and I hope the ferns are ready to gather on Monday. I will let you know next week how this turns out.

Be happy insectamonarca friends where ever you are.

Learning experiences from Eleventh New Ventures Gardening Seminar

March 19, 2011, Northwood School, Minong, WI, USA

Approximately 200 avid gardeners attended the event. They came from Duluth, MN, Rice Lake, Trego, and Hayward, WI to name a few. One speaker especially caught my attention. Francois Medion, is a French gardener who worked for many years with Paris and United States chefs. He grew vegetables and greens for restaurants. He is a gardener who believes in planting edibles into the landscape. For example, you can pair container cabbage plants near cedar and pine. Nasturtiums can be grown in containers to brighten dark corners which are mostly planted in evergreens. Medion suggested the following and I have personally eaten all of these species:

Edible flowers for garnish and salads: Sweet violets, Anise hyssop, Borage and Nasturtiums.

Edible wild plants: Oyster-leaf, Purslane, French and blood sorrel, leeks and fiddlehead ferns. NOTE: 2/1/2012. I don’t remember eating oyster-leaf but feel certain the speaker spoke of plant.

Edible roots: Evening primrose, Jerusalem artichoke

For the third year, Happy Tonics exhibit drew many visitors who were interested in the monarch life cycle. For the first time this year, gardeners told us that they are now growing common milkweed. Some attendees stated they also grew other species of milkweed. It was heartening to learn that in 2011 more gardeners are incorporating butterfly gardens to welcome the monarch butterfly and other pollinating species. A few visitors spoke of their experiences with the swallowtail butterfly, yellow and black species. Others told of sightings of Luna and sphinx moth.

Cassie Thompson, eighth grade student at Northwood School, Minong, assisted us at the Gardening Seminar. She is a long time advocate for the monarch butterfly. For years, Cassie has been raising milkweed on her property. She has established a colony of common milkweed to welcome the monarch butterfly.

As an exhibitor, Happy Tonics sold common milkweed and native crop seed. I spoke to visitors about crops including beans and corn that also has wild relatives. The purpose of wild species is to keep domesticated native species hardy. Wild relatives insure biodiversity of species. Happy Tonics buys seed from Native Seeds/SEARCH, a native seed company, from Tucson, Arizona. Seed is gathered from the Tarahumara, Hopi and Navajo tribes. Native heirloom seed is drought hardy and is better able to survive Climate Change. We have had great success with native seed. In 2010, we grew a Three Sisters Garden at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake. The garden was captured on Discover Wisconsin TV. Diane Dryden, Board Member of Happy Tonics, taught the film crew about the concept of growing a native garden.

After exhibiting at the New Ventures Garden Seminar for the third year, we are learning that gardeners are actively doing their part to help pollinators by planting butterfly gardens into their own landscapes. This is good news because we need to create a floral corridor across America in order to protect pollinators. We need to plant biodiversity of nectar and host plants. Loss of habitat is so severe that the USDA and Xerces Society have determined that farming practices of using pesticides and planting only monoculture crops have harmed pollinators. We need to reestablish native prairie and pollinator gardens across the country.

In April, our online stores reopen. Visit Happy Tonics web site at www.happytonics.org to order native seed for crops and monarch butterfly.

Eco Adventure in Wisconsin – 21 March 2010

Well Insectamonarca friends,

I am out here in the forest again. Pat and Sandy flew out to San Francisco on Friday and I am staying with Sadie again at the cabin in the woods. If I wasn’t so busy with writing a DNR Grant Proposal for Citizen-Based Monitoring Project for monarch butterflies, pollinators, insects and native plants and uses for the two Monarch Butterfly Habitats, I would have perhaps had time for a few other projects re: listen to the wind and write more.

Well the woods I love look completely different in March. Snow is off the ground. I was so hoping to find a water source but didn’t when I walked the property yesterday and today. But there is magic here. Yesterday I discovered a path on the back of the property that would accommodate cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ATVs and snowmobiles. It isn’t that big, of trail distance wise, but perfect for quiet sports re: wild plant gathering, animal and bird watching, snowshoeing, walking and cross-country skiing.

Some of you may know from the February posting Eco Adventure in Wisconsin, that I was anxious to find wild plants and herbs. Boy oh boy!

Today I found several colonies of Club Moss, a medicinal plant used for muscle pain and it is a diuretic. Of course I had to bring some back to the cabin to place in an alter setting and I made a very tasty tea using the herb. I love natural medicines. If I can prove a plant is of value because of use, I can then recommend it. This is my own trial. I was so happy to find it that I put down tobacco and thanked the plant for letting me take its life so that I might try it as a medicinal remedy.

The forest also showed me some pussy willows, mushrooms, Indian pipe and a few other spring flowers (not yet blooming). I can’t locate an herbal book with photos at the cabin till I get back to Shell Lake sometime next week and look at my herb books.

The songs of the old oak leaves and the wind blowing through the oak forest yesterday brought me back to memories of long ago at my father’s farm in Rock City Falls, New York. I haven’t had this beloved memory for so many years. How I missed it. Nothing has filled the void until I found these special woods that I love. I feel a familiar sense of healing here. I don’t want to be separated from these glacial moraines that have found me once again. Can you imagine being separated from your special earth memories for 25 years?

The sun was warm today and I found perfect place on a hill facing south and just lay down and sun bathed in the 50 degree weather. First I put on sunscreen from the white powder of the birch tree. I heard a calling going on but I don’t know what species it was. I did scare up a wild turkey yesterday from far in the bramble and small quaking aspen trees. Could it have been a male and female turkey calling to each other?

I did find last year’s bracken fern so I am hoping we can gather fiddlehead ferns here this year. What other treasures lay beneath the oak leafed carpeted forest floor?

It was a glorious day.

Be happy insectamonara friends where ever you are.