Flowerpix

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2008/04/21 - 9:50am.

Here's a Flash gallery of some wildflowers seen along Parson's Branch Rd. yesterday. All kinds of wildflowers are starting to bloom, and there are plenty to see if you look closely.



Great shots. The "young

Great shots. The "young ferns unfurling" are officially known as fiddleheads, well maybe not officially but that's what some folks call them. I believe #14 is wild geranium and #18 perhaps a nodding trillium.

R. Neal's picture
Thanks, Fletch! Fiddleheads

Thanks, Fletch! Fiddleheads is a good one, and an apt description.

redmondkr's picture
Just in case you want to get

Just in case you want to get creative with those fiddleheads.


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R. Neal's picture
Well, I never heard of such

Well, I never heard of such a thing. Never heard of "fiddleheads" before today, much less cooking with them. And now they're everywhere!

(P.S. I wonder where you buy fiddleheads to cook with? You don't want to be picking them in the National Park.)

WhitesCreek's picture
Actually, I believe you CAN pick a certain number of them

I know you can pick mushrooms and other wild edibles. Anybody got the scoop here?

R. Neal's picture
I thought picking any kind

I thought picking any kind of plant in the National Park was illegal?

WhitesCreek's picture
You may be right..Here's what you can pick

Link...

PAGE 5

This is confusing me becuase there are a ton of "wild edibles" classes you can take that show you which ones to pick inside the Park.

Curious

R. Neal's picture
Well, that link clearly says

Well, that link clearly says you can pick a lot of stuff for personal use. Did not know that. I always thought picking anything was illegal.

redmondkr's picture
I may be wrong but I seem to

I may be wrong but I seem to recall Julia Child cooking them on one of her early PBS shows. The Emeril link was just the first one I came to when I Googled it. I have ferns in the woods behind my house and they do indeed resemble a fiddle's head at this time of the year but I have no idea if they are the cooking variety.

According to Wikipedia:

The fiddleheads of certain ferns are eaten as a cooked leaf vegetable; they must be cooked first to remove shikimic acid.

I take that to mean that eating the wrong variety could be problematic.


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Unordinary culinary plants

Daylilly flower buds (a few days before they would open) are also excellent sliced in salads. They taste like chicken, I mean, cucumbers.

WhitesCreek's picture
No they don't...

They taste like day lillies, silly.

Try them right off the flower. They have a bit of a kick like cress. Buttery..mmm.

As for eating the wrong ferns, I don't think it's a problem, except that they get tough and stringy in the larger varieties.

redmondkr's picture
I have a friend who promised

I have a friend who promised to take me 'shopping' in his favorite stash of morels a few years back but he conveniently gets awfully busy about this time every year.


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redmondkr's picture
I used to enjoy the

I used to enjoy the serviceberries from an elderly tree at the entrance to the Cable Mill area. They eventually removed it. Maybe it brought bears too close to the tourists.


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