From Forest to Table

 

A fiddlehead is a fern in early spring, before the front unfurls. The name comes from its resemblance to the scroll of a violin. Picked at that stage, steamed and then sautéed, it has a flavor somewhat similar to asparagus but much more subtle. This was only my second year harvesting them, and I carefully cut only one or two per clump (sometimes only one if there were only two or three), wanting to anticipate fiddleheads for many years to come. 

I am not one to sneer at conventional wisdom when it comes to wild foods, so I followed online instructions and steamed the fiddleheads for 10 minutes before draining and patting them dry and adding them to butter and olive oil in a skillet I had already used to sauté sliced mushrooms. Added the mushrooms back to the skillet to warm them before serving. Topped with freshly grated Parmesan and freshly squeezed lemon juice. That was the first course one night.

I had gathered enough fiddleheads that we didn't eat them all the first night, so the next evening I sautéed additional mushrooms and made a cream sauce, resulting in the perfect accompaniment to panfried fresh lake trout. I didn't realize until I looked at the photo later that the chicken on the dish looked like it was falling off a cliff. Oh, well. Dinner was good!

Soon the toothwort blossoms will be open, and I'll gather leaves and flowers for salad.

Spring Fever -- Go Wild!

 

Dandelions,leeks,toothwort, violets

Fiddleheads in the woods

Outdoors every day, anyway, keeping track of what Nature is up to, why has it taken me so long to begin foraging? The extent of my wildness in past years has been to add toothwort leaves and edible flowers to ordinary salads. I never tried dandelion greens before. And fiddleheads are a whole new world for me: if I'd known how delicious that little dish would be, I'd have brought more home! Next year....

Salad with carrot shavings added

Sautéed fiddleheads with yellow violets

From Spring Woods to Farm Kitchen

You’re probably expecting, from my subject heading, either morels or wild leeks, but I want to introduce you to a less well-known Up North spring delicacy. It is the humble cutleaf (or cut-leaved) toothwort (also known as crow’s toes or pepper root), found from eastern Canada to Florida.

You can walk in the woods for years without noticing it, as I did. Then one day you make the identification, and from then on you watch for it eagerly every spring. Here is a site that keys it as a Brassica, i.e., a member of the mustard family. Its name has apparently been changed, just like my old childhood friend Brontosaurus, whose new name will never be lodged in my long-term memory. -- Whoa! Here’s good news for my generation: Brontosaurus is Back!!! Well, I'm glad I looked that up!

Anyway, toothwort. I am bound and determined to keep in the mustard family. Look at the four-petaled flower, and try to deny the family relationship.

My point – and I realize I’m taking forever to come to it – is that the peppery leaves and flowers of toothwort are a welcome change from the store-bought lettuce (and even kale) we’ve lived on all winter. I went to the woods on Friday afternoon and picked me a nice mess.

I chose the bland smoothness of tofu to offset the peppery greens. (If you don’t make your own tofu but live in the Grand Traverse area, the best available can be found at the Oryana Food Co-op in Traverse City.)

I dressed my salad with a little olive oil and very small dash of balsamic vinegar, whisked together with a smidgeon of Grey Poupon. And that was that, except for a sprinkling of hard-cooked egg yolk on top. If you don’t care for tofu, you might substitute the white from the hard-cooked egg – an easy exchange.

We seem to have strayed far from Paris today, but it’s that time of year – time to get out into the northern Michigan woods. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that toothwort or something like it can be found in the forests of Europe. We are, after all, at about the same latitude, and many of our plants are common to both continents. And who knows better than the French about foraging in the woods for kitchen treasures?