I am so thrilled with my warabi, or fiddle-head ferns. The little patch of them in a side garden by some rocks has grown and is thriving. We are now having lovely fern shoots as a vegetable from time to time, and I don't need to go out in the boonies and forage.
Whether you know them as warabi (Japanese), ho‘i‘o (Hawaiian) or
ostrich fern (most of the mainland), the fiddle-head ferns are the young,
edible, tightly coiled shoots of the fern that resemble the end of a
violin or fiddle. The shoots remain coiled for about two-weeks before
they unfurl into the delicate, lacy greenery we are all familiar with.
The species most commonly found in Hawai‘i is the Pteridium
aquilinum, which grows in temperate and sub-tropical regions. It was
introduced to the islands by Japanese immigrants who value it mainly for
the young stems rather than the unfurled coils. Certain varieties of
the plant contain the carcinogenic compound Ptaquiloside and need to be
cooked thoroughly before eating.
