New England's Edible Plants

• Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead-The Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead is indeed edible and grows naturally in New England's Outdoors. They grow in early thru late spring and look like the fiddlehead pictured to the right with the papery stuff covering it. Back in 1994 there was an outbreak of food borne illness from eating raw or under cooked fiddleheads. So, we have now learned that they should be cooked before being eaten.
• Wild Blueberries-These are not to be confused with night lock or nightshade. They are blue-purple berries with a small crown at the top after you pull it off of the stem. They taste like normal blueberries that you would find in the grocery store or in the fridge. But, usually are smaller because the ones in stores where grown on farms where they used picking and planting to find the best plants. You can eat them how you would eat any normal blueberries.
• Wild Raspberries-These are red or black berries that grow in bushes that have prickers on them and they taste just like the ones in the store also they are usually about the same size as them too. The same choices are given once again for preparation.
• White Pine-This tree should only be used if you are very experience and can definitely identify it because it could get mixed up with other evergreens that are poisonous. You can identify this tree from its needles because they only will still have their needles if they are from this year and because of that the lower branches will have no needles and the inner parts of the branches won't either. Some uses are you can eat the inner bark, make tea from the needles, and it smells nice (I know that this is not any thing to do with eating). Also, it was used to help the explorers from getting scurvy because it has so much Vitamin C.
• Birch-The birch tree has many uses such as the water inside of it is 100% potable and also its branches can be used to make tea which also has many herbal uses. Both white and black birch can have these uses.