Latest news with #fiddleheads
CBC
4 days ago
- General
- CBC
'Peaceful' fiddlehead gathering in Neqotkuk First Nation
Social Sharing This is part of a series called Ann's Eye, featuring the work of Ann Paul, a Wolastoqey content creator. You can see more Ann's Eye pieces by clicking here. Hiya Nicholas is a plumber by trade, and knows too well how fiddlehead skins can get stuck in pipes. That's why when he takes people out to gather fiddleheads with him, he also teaches them how to properly clean the green ferns, a popular springtime dish in New Brunswick. WATCH | Connecting to culture through fiddlehead-picking: Ann's Eye: A day by the Tobique River with a lifelong fiddlehead harvester 3 hours ago Duration 2:47 Indigenous peoples, of course, have been gathering fiddleheads for centuries, said Ann Paul, who recently went fiddlehead picking with Nicholas and his grandson, Easton Sockabasin, along the Tobique River in Neqotkuk First Nation. "I appreciated going to get teachings from a different community," said Ann, a member of St. Mary's First Nation. "It was so calming and peaceful." It's the act of connecting with creation that inspires peace, she said. "When you feed yourself with the food from creation, it calms your soul." Scroll through the photos and watch the video to learn more. Ann's Eye Photographer Ann Paul brings an Indigenous lens to stories from First Nations communities across New Brunswick. Click here or on the image below to see more of her work.
CTV News
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Foraging for fiddleheads: A springtime tradition in the Maritimes is in full swing
Sarah Plowman has the story of the long-standing Maritime family traditions and secrets of foraging for fiddleheads.
CTV News
17-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Foraging for fiddleheads: A springtime tradition in the Maritimes is in full swing
Sarah Plowman has the story of the long-standing Maritime family traditions and secrets of foraging for fiddleheads. Just off a road in a wooded area that hugs a river, dinner is sprouting. Some fiddleheads, the curled greens that have been a staple in New Brunswick for generations, are waiting in plain sight. Sometimes, they're hidden under the brush. With a bag in his hand and his eyes on the ground, Andrew MacLean explains how to forage the ostrich fern. 'There's only a two-week window where these things are ripe, so you have to be pretty quick on the ball,' he said. 'If they grow too large, they're bitter.' Some people like to boil the fern and add vinegar, explains MacLean, but he says they taste best sauteed with lemon and garlic. MacLean first went fiddleheading with his grandparents in Tide Head, N.B., which bills itself as the world's fiddlehead capital. It's a tradition he continues every spring. 'This is kind of a major thing for my family, but not just my family, but New Brunswickers from all over, all ages,' he said. 'You can just kind of tell the story of New Brunswick based on fiddleheads.' Fiddleheads through history 'In the beginning, the Wolastoqiyik, Mi'kmaq, and the Passamaquoddy really loved the fiddlehead. When the Acadian population came over in the 1700s, they were taught about the fiddleheads by the Indigenous peoples,' said Maclean, a historian and author who tells stories of Canada's past in his books and on his website . 'And then, very soon after the English arrived with the Loyalists, they didn't have much food in the beginning. And they went for the fiddleheads, which grew very early in the spring.' Maclean says, in the 1980s, Vermont tried to make the fiddlehead its official vegetable, sparking an angry response from people in New Brunswick who protested with poems. Vermont ultimately didn't go through with it, he says. Maclean's family freezes the fiddleheads and eventually cook to add to Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner. A quirky tip to wash them is to use a bingo cage. 'If you put that in shallow water and the fiddleheads inside them and use it to wash them, it's way less of a fuss, Maclean said. 'Since time immemorial, we've picked fiddleheads' On Tobique First Nation, Shane Perley-Dutcher carries a traditional woven basket through a grassy area next to a stream. He's on the lookout for fiddleheads and doesn't want any that have overgrown. 'You want to get them when they're nice and curled up,' he said. Like MacLean, Perley-Dutcher has been doing this since he was a kid. He grew up picking with his aunts, uncles and grandmother. 'We always had spots. 'Our secret spots' they would say,' he joked, pointing out people are protective of the areas where they forage. As he quickly spots, picks and throws fiddleheads into his basket, he leaves one in the bunch he picked from – a lesson he learned from his family to leave one for the next person. Perley-Dutcher says fiddleheads are a traditional staple and medicine because of their nutritional benefits. 'It's like the first medicine of the spring, of the year,' he said. 'Since time immemorial, we've picked fiddleheads. And it was always known as part of our diet, our traditional diet, along with salmon.' He washes his fiddleheads in the stream in the traditional basket he brought to remove any brown, papery scales. Jamie Simpson, author of Eating Wild in Eastern Canada, points out how the ostrich fern likes to grow along riverbanks, particularly riverbanks that get flooded in springtime. It grows into a full-size fern with a big frond that kind of looks like an ostrich feather, he says. Eating them safely According to the government of Canada, fiddleheads can cause food poisoning if they have not been stored, prepared or cooked properly. Health Canada recommends cooking fiddleheads in a generous amount of boiling water for 15 minutes or steaming them for 10 to 12 minutes until tender. The water used for boiling or steaming the fiddleheads should be discarded after. What's the best fiddleheads recipe? It depends on who you ask. 'A little bit of butter, some salt, a little bit of lemon juice, a little bit of vinegar, and they're just perfect,' said Simpson.
