fiddleheads... too late!

They're great. Why do you say they are too late? Did you mean to dig some up earlier?

That's interesting Lori I've recently read a book that mentioned Fiddleheads ,you do eat them don't you ? I shall look forward to the blog ...

Amy just googled it as never heard of them, it is the same one we call the Ostrich fern and a delicacy When still curled like a fiddle.

Yes Brian in the book I have recently read the children went out with their baskets in the early morning collecting them to sell , I wonder what they taste like !

they taste a little like asparagus/spinach. they are tricky to clean...there is an orangey coloured husks that enclose the individual leaflets, before they unfurl, which must be removed. Some use water to float them away...then drain and or boil or steam them very quickly...serve as you would asparagus with melted butter and lemonjuice. I have left these stands strictly alone...just cleared the encroaching undergrowth to an acceptable level for the ferns, Oji. It's a lesson I've learned since coming here...if it's doing ok on it's own...it's doing what nature intended...so I leave it alone. I have Osmunda, and an unnamed fern that is so small it looks like moss, for which I am searching the name, there is a fern which is a dull brown when it unfurls and then the stems turn a bright red...just many many different ones which I am encouraging. Lots to learn. will blog when I get a chance to do the research.

Thanks for the info Lori , I love Asparagus so I would like that , you have so many new plants there , I meant to ask you why your last ground was poisoned ,did some calamity cause it or was it a natural condition of the soil ?

The area where we lived for 12 years was polluted by industrial mismanagement. In those years no one thought much about the effects of industrial effluent. The towns main industries were a pulp mill and a large carpet factory...there were dye ponds and leachate beds...etc. and the air was stinking and unfit to breathe! and when the carpet factory closed the whole site had to be filled in and left undeveloped for 30 years! Some who had houses built on the streets which were adjacent had seepage into their basements of toxic chemicals. The "containment" of these chemicals had failed and it was leaching into the groundwater. There were, by percentage of the population, more people on dialysis, in chaemotherapy, and heart patients in that small city than in the city of Ottawa, some 90 kms. away. The dark joke was that if you wanted to see your neighbours more often you had to go to the Ottawa hospitals.

My goodness Lori that's horrific !! in fact it sounds very much like a film I once watched ,was it made into a film ? I should think you were very relieved to move away from there , I hope you escaped with no awful illness or breathing problems ,it must be wonderful for you to have good soil and so many healthy wild plants....

Amy and we think we have problems here /
Was the film you were thinking of Erin Brocavitc.It stared
Julia Roberts.I think that was in the United States.

Yes Brian I think it was , don't you think it sounds similar ,they had to fight the big companies for compensation it was scary stuff so many people ill ! BTW I may be without a computer as of tomorrow , it's being taken away for tests , it's been having ' Blue Screens ' :o((

Amy hope the bill is not to large.

Yes, the problem in California was polyvalent chromium. Erin Brockovitz is based on a true story and a real person. The problem here was never openly discussed or legally contended. The plant closed and the ponds were filled in...some of it was pumped into the St.Lawrence River!...and the city went into decline when the pulp mill company decided they could make better profits if the paper was produced elsewhere. economic disaster for the town...
Just very happy to be where we are now.
Sorry to hear of your computer woes...replaced my desktop computer with a laptop! Don`t like the keyboard. The security programmes we buy to protect our computers often cause headaches too.

I've finally got my computer back , problem is there is so much missing on it I'm working hard to put it back ,he didn't warn me that would happen before he took it ,my calender has gone all the birthdays , groan !
I've just realised that my spelling button has gone .....
£ 130 Brian.. ouch !

Lori I'm thrilled to be able to tell you that the Jack in the Pulpit seeds have germinated and are developing nicely with two little leaves each so far :o))

Oh Amy...I sympathise~ the tech must have wiped your hard drive....or for 130 he must have replaced it! for that amount he should have restored all your personal settings for you!
Wonderful! they germinated?! hurray! just posted a pic of the JITP that is snuggled in my daylily bed! Can't wait to see your Jacks!