still truckin', 60's hippies moving to Maine (Unity, Parkman: neighborhood, living)

[Coaster]

Originally Posted by happeemommee

This is a great thread!! I've enjoyed it thoroughly! Do have a stupid question, what the heck is a fiddlehead? LMAO sorry that my non-Maine side is showing.

A fiddlehead is the emerging stalk and head of a fern before it unfolds. Foragers find them along streams and in wet areas. I've never heard of them being cultivated. The head looks pretty much like the scroll top of a fiddle -- or violin, as more sophisticated folk might say. But calling it a violinhead doesn't sound nearly as good!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Coaster

Are they your pigs? Do they have problems with predators, such as coyotes? Free-ranging pigs used to be very common in rural Maine after the last of the wolves and mountain lions had been hunted out. They were let out in the spring and then brought back in the late fall after feasting on the mast crops.

I have pigs in a woodlot. I have not seen any problems with predators.

I did see a black bear this winter up and wandering around. He went through my pig 'pasture', I am not sure if he or my pigs noticed each other.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Coaster

A fiddlehead is the emerging stalk and head of a fern before it unfolds. Foragers find them along streams and in wet areas. I've never heard of them being cultivated. The head looks pretty much like the scroll top of a fiddle -- or violin, as more sophisticated folk might say. But calling it a violinhead doesn't sound nearly as good!

I saw them potted and being sold for re-planting this spring at the FEDCO sale.

[namder1]

Hmmm I didn't know they could be transplanted!

[Coaster]

Originally Posted by Submariner

I saw them potted and being sold for re-planting this spring at the FEDCO sale.

Cool! Were they being sold as garden ferns or as seed stock for future harvestable fiddlehead crops? My brother lives along the Passagassawaukeag River in Belfast and has a couple of spots where they might do well.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Coaster

Cool! Were they being sold as garden ferns or as seed stock for future harvestable fiddlehead crops? My brother lives along the Passagassawaukeag River in Belfast and has a couple of spots where they might do well.

They were labeled as Fiddleheads. Most of the FEDCO crowd is food-producers, though there are some landscape type people.

[happeemommee]

Originally Posted by Submariner

A local wild food delicacy.

Thanks for filling me in.





A lot of people agree with you.

How about livestock you raise yourself?

For example; we have pigs free ranging in our woods, ...

Food you raise yourself is the best food you can eat! You know how it's grown, what's in it, etc. My husband and I would love to raise goats - so we can make all kinds of things out of the milk - and raise chickens, too. On top of being vegetarian, I'm also gluten intolerant and have to be careful of eggs I eat because if the chickens are fed the wrong thing - it will make me ill. So I have a daily reminder of how important it is to eat healthy!

LMAO - this is definitely an interesting thread!

[happeemommee]

Originally Posted by Coaster

A fiddlehead is the emerging stalk and head of a fern before it unfolds. Foragers find them along streams and in wet areas. I've never heard of them being cultivated. The head looks pretty much like the scroll top of a fiddle -- or violin, as more sophisticated folk might say. But calling it a violinhead doesn't sound nearly as good!

Thanks! I just "googled" them and found all kinds of recipes and pictures!!

[lrmsd]

Originally Posted by starwalker

I don't think that is the kind of Celtic he meant, but I could be wrong...

There is some, I follow a Northern Trad but not Celtic. I seem to have found more Celtic influence in the south -- many folks want what the land and the climate doesn't say, I guess.

Or maybe folks want what resonates with them personally, often due to where their ancestors came from, btw. [Hint: Often Celtic!] The idea that your practice needs to jibe specifically with the geography is pretty dogmatic [actually, the word 'pedantic' comes to mind specifically]. I mean, it can often make sense to do so, but is not mandatory. Many practices from around the world (from very divergent geographical 'land/climates') are working quite well and helping many people, in many parts of the US. Celts were migratory people anyway, so that tradition even today tends to be quite flexible and malleable, depending on where someone finds themselves, as was true in the past, too. I think the 'northern traditions' are a little more ensconced in their worldview so the tradition's protocols are more expected and deviation not as appreciated-from my experience. This could be interpreted subjectively as good or bad; I'm just sharing that observation. Cheers!

edit: oops, I just realized that I resurrected this old thread-I forgot I was doing research instead of reading a current thread. (:

[namder1]

Just an update. Shot a total of 4 turkey's last season. First for me as when I grew up here there weren't any around. I cooked them as a normal turkey. Basted with butter or olive oil and Bells seasoning. Cooked on a low heat(300/325) They were delicious! I had heard that the legs weren't good but I liked them just fine.