Backyard foraging

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Your backyard has food that you might not know was really food. We back onto a wooded park, so we have plenty of shade. That means hostas, ferns and solomon seal. These are all edible. Our first harvest this year are fiddleheads: ferns before they become firms. I reliably remove about one third of the heads from each fern crown every year without ill effect.

They are fantastic sauteed in butter with a bit of salt. Also good are quick fiddlehead refrigerator pickles:

-Blanche in boiling water for about a minute
-Add to a jar with a 50-50 mix of white vinegar and water. The half liter jar below took about 2/3 cup of liquid in total. Add a pinch of salt and a double pinch of sugar.
-Leave at room temperature for a day and then refrigerate
-Wait for a week but they keep for at least a month

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