[Cathryn]

I think but I am not sure that you should read more carefully and say less. Your commercial interest in wild foods appears to outweigh your judgement in some of your posts.

I would always trust CAB's advice...

[Jamanda]

Which is a perfectly accurate answer to the question.

[toggle]

who is this nugget anyway? I seem to be missing something here.

[Behemoth]

That's a qualification now days.

5 Mc Nugggets get you a burger, three burgers a family meal, three family meals get you a post running the civil service IT development team.

[vegplot]

That's a qualification now days.

5 Mc Nugggets get you a burger, three burgers a family meal, three family meals get you a post running the civil service IT development team.

[toggle]

That's a qualification now days.

5 Mc Nugggets get you a burger, three burgers a family meal, three family meals get you a post running the civil service IT development team.

[vegplot]

Super size me I'll have a Double First please.

[Mary-Jane]

[Jonnyboy]

You didn't create it.

[freebie59]

You didn't create it.

[cab]

He's had some gentle ribbing for it, but now its all gone a bit odd

Going back to topic, its interesting that perceptions on whether things are edible are really so changeable. If you've got little to eat, if when Spring comes you've had nothing much green for months, then you might be temtped by forage that you'd never normally touch.

A lot of things that were formerly considered edible just wouldn't be considered edible now. Take, for example, the clouded agaric mushroom (Clitocybe nebularis). Listed as edible in some old books, even sometimes seen for sale in greengrocers (I've encountered it in a shop in Notts once or twice, an old fashioned greengrocers), but generally considered best avoided (even potentially poisonous these days. Yet certain commercial pickers still (quite unbelievably!) sell it.

Now, one way of looking at this is that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger; all you have to do is avoid the really toxic stuff. I've got some sympathy for that attitude, but its still wrong. We live longer than we used to and we ain't starving, the risks associated with those borderline forages are both greater (longer to accumulate toxins) and less worthwhile.

Back to fiddleheads; its odd, its clearly a toxic plant, but I'm unaware of anyone who has eaten them correctly (young and unfurled) and who has harmed themselves with them. But then, I've not come across a tradition of eating such things in the UK, so I'm quite fascinated to learn whether there have been incidences of poisoning.

[freebie59]

He's had some gentle ribbing for it, but now its all gone a bit odd

Going back to topic, its interesting that perceptions on whether things are edible are really so changeable. If you've got little to eat, if when Spring comes you've had nothing much green for months, then you might be temtped by forage that you'd never normally touch.

A lot of things that were formerly considered edible just wouldn't be considered edible now. Take, for example, the clouded agaric mushroom (Clitocybe nebularis). Listed as edible in some old books, even sometimes seen for sale in greengrocers (I've encountered it in a shop in Notts once or twice, an old fashioned greengrocers), but generally considered best avoided (even potentially poisonous these days. Yet certain commercial pickers still (quite unbelievably!) sell it.

Now, one way of looking at this is that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger; all you have to do is avoid the really toxic stuff. I've got some sympathy for that attitude, but its still wrong. We live longer than we used to and we ain't starving, the risks associated with those borderline forages are both greater (longer to accumulate toxins) and less worthwhile.

Back to fiddleheads; its odd, its clearly a toxic plant, but I'm unaware of anyone who has eaten them correctly (young and unfurled) and who has harmed themselves with them. But then, I've not come across a tradition of eating such things in the UK, so I'm quite fascinated to learn whether there have been incidences of poisoning.

[Jonnyboy]

Let's just say that it was the straw that broke the camels back.

[freebie59]

you can say what you like it was still childish.

[toggle]

you can say what you like it was still childish.

[Behemoth]

you can say what you like it was still childish.

[freebie59]

and who is going to delete his account ......and while you are at it delete mine as well i no longer wish to post to this infantile forum .

[Jonnyboy]

That's not really your concern, is it?

[toggle]

and who is going to delete his account ......and while you are at it delete mine as well i no longer wish to post to this infantile forum .

[lottie]

Well said---I didn't like or agree with what gourmet fungi said---but I really didn't like the cutting of the account threat either

[Slim]

I think that there may have been a core misunderstanding in the terminology of fiddlehead. Fiddleheads in northeastern North America are Ostrich Ferns as stated earlier. As such, they are the sporophyte stage of the plant, therefore they cannot, in anyway be gendered.

Yes there is some risk, but also much cultural heritage to back up the relative safety of eating them. As for gfungi, I would hesitate to take the advice of someone who thinks that the sporphyte (i.e. what you see above ground) stage of a fern can be correctly sexed

[vegplot]

Only if you have at least one A level.

[cab]

Thats why I said that I don't know about fiddleheads. I didn't advise anyone to eat them, nor not to eat them, because I don't know enough about them. What I said was this:

[vegplot]

Are you feeling sleepy?

[Jamanda]

Are you feeling sleepy?

[Penny]

Are you feeling sleepy?

[cinders]

Are you feeling sleepy?