| |  | | Fiddle Heads or Ostrich Ferns
Answered by: Rick Miller
Question from: Glen
Posted on: May 20, 2009
Do you know of any one that has commercially produced fiddle head ferns either outside or in a greenhouse setting.My wife and I have ten acres in the Fraser canyon area and want to try to set up a self sustained business on are land. Fiddle heads grow naturally on our property but only last for picking for about one month. I would like to extend that to all year. Could you please tell me if you have any experience with this kind of a crop.
The market for the Fiddlehead Fern is very limited, mostly to Germany and Hungary. This is the early stage of Bracken Fern (with no markets). When taken in the fiddle-head stage, it is pickled and then bottled for export.
I have no ideas what the current price is, having only done this when I was boy. The market still exists, but has dropped to a more limited production. If that crop is present, no doubt so is Nettle. Now that is one which can be farmed, similar to Catnip.
There are sizable markets for other fern, especially the Sword Fern [Polystickum munitum (Kaulf.) Presl], used extensively in the floral trade. This also grows in the same fields and shade as does the Bracken Fern.
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