Pickled Fiddleheads

 
 One of the joys of living in Maine is the multitude of things one can forage and eat. Spring is a time of a great unfolding in this state, as the abundant nature around us wakes from the slumber of winter. One prize possession the is revealed is fiddle heads. These unique edible spirals of green wonder are the baby ostrich fern.

 While all ferns have fiddleheads, it is the Ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) that is the unique species of edible fern. 

SP loves to hunt down this mysterious low lying plants and bring home a bundle to be eaten. He loves to pan fry them in butter or to coat them in a batter and fry. This year he let me pickle them for Christmas treats for the family. 

I used the recipe from http://www.wellpreserved.ca found Here. One of the MOST IMPORTANT things about using fiddleheads is to exercise proper cleaning of them before cooking. All that brown whispy stuff needs to be removed completely. It's very easy but you need to do a thorough job. 

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fiddleheads, cleaned thoroughly
• 1 large white onion, cut in half then sliced into ½ circles
• 3½ cups white vinegar
• 3½ cups water
• 2 tsp salt
• 8 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 2 tsp chili flakes
• 4 tsp black peppercorns

 Process
1. In a hot water canner, sterilize your jars. 
2. Put your cleaned fiddleheads into a strainer or the strainer of your pasta pot and prepare them to be blanched. 
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Blanch your fiddleheads in this for 3 minutes. 
4. Remove the strainer of fiddle heads and quickly cool them under running cold water. Preserve your blanching water. It is a healthy and nutritious way to water your house plants. I got 2 pitchers worth and my plants thanked me. Really, they did. 

5. Make the bring by combining the rest onion, vinegar, water, salt, garlic,  and honey in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil. 
6. While the brine is coming to a boil, prepare your hot jars by adding a clove of garlic and 1/2 teaspoon each of chili flakes and peppercorns.
7.  Pack the blanched fiddle heads into your jars.  
8. Cover the fiddle heads with the brine. Leave 1/2 inch head space. 
9. Process in a hot water canner for 10 minutes.  
10. Wait as long as you can before opening the jars to try them. SP only made it 24 hours. I challenge you to wait a week.

 

p.s. somehow I turned on text background color and I can't turn it off. Sorry. 

Cleaning up Sap Season

It's been great to watch the snow melt this past week, but nothing confirms the arrival of spring more than the greening of the grass and the take down of all the sap buckets.

There's the toboggans, ready to sled the boiler back.

It was a great syrup season - our best yet! I am looking forward to the thinning of the sugar bush this year and processing all the firewood it will create. It might look a bit bleak but in 10 year, we should have lines and a professional operation.

Final Sap Boil of 2017

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day as we boiled off the final ~60 gallons of sap. The weather should be up into the 70's for the next two days so it feels like quite a gift to still be boiling. Spring has solidly set in, leaving the red maples with large swollen buds. We know the sap will shut off if it already hasn't it's a season of remarkable change.

Boiling sap on such a wonderfully spring like day is a gift in comparison to the brutal single digits of the first boil of the season.

Nonetheless, the reminders are all around you of the firm grip winter had on us and the tremendous change that still needs to happen. A quick look around and you realize just how much of your driveway and road have been displaced by the snow plow and there is a great deal of raking and shoveling in our future.

We can count our blessings that we made it this far on the last of the sap wood and that we only needed a couple of chunks of the two dead pines we did drop yesterday.

I guess the most exciting part of yesterday was being left alone and in charge for a considerable amount of time while SP took Baby to a birthday party. Pickle came outside for a little bit and I asked her to snap a couple of pictures of me, since I am always the one behind the camera.

Luckily, SP came home in the knick of time because, of the 4 buckets of sap he left me with, I was down to the bottom of the 4th bucket. That was a little too close for comfort.

I had a moment of glee when I realized the snow had melted enough that we could see the top of the well cap. Even the chickens realized the retreat of the snow and resumed their dusting under the pine tree behind the house.

Sixty gallons to syrup came rather quickly, and this late season sap gave us some gorgeous colors left in the pan, with the spring afternoon sky reflected in the surface. 

 

As the afternoon progressed on, we were increasingly aware of the sounds of running water. We were surrounded by mini streams of snow melt. It was also time to go break out some water bars to save the road and driveway from being further washed away. Oh the joys of spring time!

WHERE THE SNOW MELTS OUT FROM UNDER THE WALL

TRYING TO FIND THE DRIVEWAY

HILL MEETS SEPTIC RUNOFF

THE TIME OF YEAR THE SWING SET IS OUT

DON'T EAT MY DRIVEWAY

DOWNHILL SIDE FROM HOUSE

Making Syrup

Tapping Trees

We are trying our hands in making maple syrup this year. Of 40 viable trees, we only tapped ten as we were told we would have more than enough!

Dear SP drills the first on a beautiful winter Sunday!

The Rowland's guide us and kindly donated the gear and expertise!

First spile is flowing!

Drip! Drop!

Happy times!

My first drill before I corrected my angle.

Drinking straight from the tree!

Panoramic view of the front fields!

Our youngest sipping sap!

We added a little utility humor for the neighborhood!

Happiness is...

Toes in freshly tilled garden soil!

Spring has sprung

Three wonderful signs of spring: the hammock is hung, the buds are bursting, and SP is tilling the garden. I love Tillulah our tiller. Go check her out at this link. She's a beauty and my first Mother's Day presents after we moved to Maine.

A few of my favorite things

Yes, that is my one beloved Lilac that is busting out spring on Easter Sunday.
That is also my three beloved children (from left to right) Pickle, Puckstopper, and Baby.
And no, no matter what I ever tell you or them or otherwise, I don't have a favorite. All love.

Saturday Sandwich

Tuning up Tillulah!

A Photo Essay

I have been absent from blogging for about a month and I'm sorry about it. There is so much that has happened, things that I found, new discoveries, eureka moments, and of course the incredible unfolding of spring. I was lucky enough to receive two springs this year. One in Connecticut, and another here in Maine. I decided that instead of multiple posts, I will do a photo essay of all my discoveries and musings.











The Merit Parkway Bridges are some of my favorite New England architecture.










The cherry's were in bloom!















This is a picture of volunteers at the hospital from years past.
My dear mother HiHo is the second woman from the left.













This bed of tulips was so heartwarming at the hospital during a difficult time.




































These were all flowers that I brought my brother.













This tree was one of the side effects of a the recent storms in Connecticut.










My breakfast at a friends restaurant in the East Villiage.












A blooming dogwood - one of my favorite trees.









Baby watching the trains come in as we wait to pick up Sloop. That Ascela astounded him!