Fiddlehead Ferns

I have a soft spot for fiddleheads ever since we visited Juneau Alaska many years ago. There is a fantastic restuarant there, named The Fiddlehead. The tiny shoots, which grow in abundance on the mountainsides, are gathered in early spring. Prized as salad ingredients and wonderful sauted in butter, fiddleheads have a fresh sweet taste & a delicate asparagus flavour with the woodsy overtones of wild mushrooms. To the locals, the fiddlehead symbolizes "Beginner's Mind", the place we must find within ourselves from which we see problems as opportunities and challenges as adventures.

The ultimate springtime indulgence is succulent fiddleheads alongside sourdough English muffins topped with smoked salmon and poached eggs, all bathed in a lemony hollandaise.