Fiddlehead ferns and Dandelion greens

My grandmother loved to hunt for treasures. Like old bottles in the ground on the edge of a property used for dumping in a time gone by. She had her finds lined up on a shelf or window sill, displayed in blues and gold, burgundy and green. Saturday morning you could find her driving around town and beyond to check out the neighborhood yard sales, looking for something valuable that someone was letting go of for 25 cents. This time of year, she would go foraging for early greens to put on the supper table. Along the creek beds she would harvest fiddleheads from the emerging ferns, and dig out dandelion greens from the grass. I ate her delicious greens as a side but do not remember watching her prepare them. I know there was butter and onions involved! On one of my recent morning walks I saw the fiddleheads rising tall and thought of my grandmother. I did a little research about the preparation of them…not for the faint of heart. Though loaded with many nutrients (yay Gram!), they must be carefully prepared, to avoid a stomach ache. I remember the dandelion greens being a little bitter; perhaps that is why I love arugula so much, full of flavor and a little bitter. I am not willing to forage like my grandmother did, a little leery of the exposure to the environmental hazards we bring to the creeks and turf during our era. My own garden is really getting a pokey start with the cool nights still lingering…by this time I would be snapping some asparagus, but my crop is not liking the spring and looks like it may just go to “fern”. I will use that later for cut flower bouquets. And I’ll have to wait a little bit longer to put my own greens on the dinner plate. Off to Market Basket…