Fiddlehead season is well underway
Fiddlehead season is a short one, lasting from May until about mid-June, says Norcliff Farms’ Brittany Di Lorenzo.
What’s even shorter is the time-frame for picking the small green vegetable from its ostrich fern parent, she says.
“They have to be picked as babies before they unfurl. It’s a one-day span.”
Di Lorenzo, who handles public relations and communications for Norcliff Farms, says the company has pickers working every day at Ontario and Quebec locations to harvest fiddleheads before they are inedible.
Once picked, the fiddleheads are sent to a processing plant in Asbestos, Que., where they are cleaned, sorted, packed and then shipped to locations across Canada and parts of the United States, including New York and Illinois.
“Our plant is working 24/7 to get everything out as quick as possible … to get fiddleheads to the consumers fresh.”
Di Lorenzo says there was a bit of late start to the season this year due to weather, and frost delaying the start of some of the picking. With the late start, the season is expected to go a bit deeper into the month of June.
“We’re about three-quarters of the way through now. It’s been really busy, production and sales are on track … we have been able to meet the demand.”
Both she and Nina Secord, co-owner of Norcliff, say the company chose not to harvest in New Brunswick this year, where the company started, due to flooding in the province.
Norcliff Farms is North America’s largest producer and packer of fiddleheads, with operations in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, and was started by Nick Secord more than 40 years ago.
Secord and his wife Nina opened the company’s headquarters in Port Colborne more than a decade ago property bordering the Wainfleet Bog.
The property has ostrich ferns just off of its main drive, but nothing is harvested there.
Secord says she and her husband tried farming the ostrich ferns in rows in Port Colborne but it didn’t work.
“Ferns like to be together, they grow and feed off of each other,”
she says. Di Lorenzo says the ferns grow in swampy areas and alongside rivers.
“We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides, we just let nature do its thing.”
Back in the ’70s, when Secord started harvesting fiddleheads, people weren’t really sure what they were or how to use them, Di Lorenzo says.
These days people are more aware of the health benefits of the vegetables, which have twice the antioxidants of blueberries and have Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and are a source of protein.
“They are a vegan’s dream, but they also pair nicely with fish and meat,” says Di Lorenzo.
Along with the health benefits, she says, restaurants use them in seasonal dishes and home cooks are finding creative ways to incorporate them into everyday meals. They are good for at least 30 days if stored in water in a fridge, she adds.
She says Norcliff started a contest on May 14 on its Instagram page — www.instagram.com/northamericas_fiddleheads/ — where anyone can post a photo of a fiddlehead-inspired dish and have a chance to win a $100 gift card. The contest is open to May 28 and all people have to do to enter is tag the company and two friends.
Di Lorenzo says there was an interesting soup and she’s seen them used in ravioli so far.
“They are very versatile.”