You know those people who get so completely obsessed with some obscure produce item or ingredient that they just have to have it? They yap about it for weeks to anyone who will listen, then wake up at ungodly hours and elbow to the front of the farmer’s market so they can be the very first to buy it? Aren’t they annoying as all get-out? Well, hello, my name is April, and I have a produce problem. You see, for many years I’ve been reading about a mysterious spring delicacy known as the fiddlehead fern. If you’ve not heard of them, fiddleheads are the furled leaves of certain types of ferns, curled like the head of a violin, and spoken of in hushed, slightly awed tones by those “in the know”. These greens are actually found everywhere in Maine and other parts of New England and Canada, but I’d never seen them in Pittsburgh markets until recently. When I heard they were coming to Farmers @ the Firehouse this Spring, I suddenly became deeply covetous of the wily fronds, and was determined to lay my hands on them.
I knew that the ferns were hard to come by, which meant that I would have to position myself at the market before opening time. This translates to before 9:00am on a Saturday morning - surprisingly not on the list of favorite things to do on my day off. Still, I went the week before last, and managed to arrive about 10 minutes before 9. Yes! There was even time to grab a desperately-needed cup of coffee before the vendors were allowed to start selling. I slipped into La Prima, got a to-go cup, and hurried back to the stalls. Then, if you were near, you might have heard me mutter: “What? They’re sold out already?! Good grief.” Then, frantically: “Ok, but will you have them next week?” Of course, the shame that they’d slipped through my fingers made me want them even more…and I vowed to not let them escape again.