Fiddleheads Sautés

For a few weeks every spring, the riverbanks of New Brunswick unfurl with fiddleheads — the young, tightly coiled shoots of the ostrich fern, gathered by Mi’kmaq and Acadian families for centuries. The season is so short that whole towns mark their calendars by it.

Clean them well, boil them briefly, then let butter and garlic do the rest. The result is a vegetable that tastes like the forest floor crossed with asparagus — nutty, grassy and unmistakably of this place. Eat them while the season lasts.

Maritimes recipes →