Pem•e•tic

Pemetic

\pe-mi-tik\ n: Native American Wabanaki place name for
Mount Desert Island, Maine and the areas surrounding

Pur•vey• ors

Purveyors

\pər-vāərz\ n: Persons who provide goods or services

Long before the roadside stands in Maine pop up selling blueberries and strawberries, we are on the lookout for one of the early signs of spring: “Clean Fiddleheads For Sale”.

If your time in Maine has strictly been in the summer months, you will have missed this tasty, short-lived treat.  Like the lovely peepers, fiddleheads are around for a short time in the spring, long before the majority of our visitors arrive.

Fiddleheads are the fronds of the Ostrich Fern before they unfurl.  They can be boiled, steamed, sautéed, fried, pickled, made into soup and, once cooked, can be enjoyed hot or cold.  They freeze well after being blanched and are a welcome reminder of warmer times during the cold days of winter.  Think: asparagus, with a slightly greener taste.  Delicious!  Often a staple food crop for native Abenaki and early Maine settlers, fiddleheads are now mostly forgotten from our modern cuisine.

Picking fiddleheads is not for the faint of heart.  They are found in Maine’s deep woods, in wet areas, often along the banks of swift flowing freshwater rivers & streams.  A nuisance that also likes moving fresh water is the black fly.  Unfortunately for those brave souls who harvest fiddleheads, the black flies and the fiddleheads appear at about the same time, making for harvesting conditions to be, well, “character building” let’s say.

To us, fiddleheads remind that spring has arrived.  With fiddleheads come the promise and hope of magical seasons ahead, a renewal from the seemingly endless Maine winter.  While so many are familiar with our amazing region, fiddleheads remain relatively unknown, inspiring us to keep in mind that as familiar as we are with Downeast Maine, there are still secrets here to be discovered and enjoyed at every turn.  This is why the fiddlehead, in all its humble glory, is the chosen emblem for us at Pemetic Purveyors.