https://modernfarmer.com/2024/05/fiddleheads-not-spinach/ Farm. Food. Life. Fri, 30 Aug 2024 04:45:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://modernfarmer.com/2024/05/fiddleheads-not-spinach/#comment-73953 Sun, 26 May 2024 14:20:38 +0000 https://modernfarmer.com/?p=156909#comment-73953 I ate a lot of fiddleheads years ago, in Alaska and in high eastern Arizona. Mostly boiled or steamed. Unfortunately, those dietary days are in the past. Fiddleheads are now know to be carcinogenic. AND, they have long been known to be cyanogenic [producers of cyanide] when eaten raw. Even a couple of heads can really mess with you. Fortunately, cows, who are not the brightest of range critters in my experience, are not known to boil or steam their forage, so the ferns have had no selective incentive to find a workaround for that. So, that leaves only the carcinogen thing.

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