With farmers market season now underway, many Montrealers are out shopping for local produce.
One of the hottest vegetables this season: fiddleheads.
Fiddleheads are tightly-wound, spiral-shaped plants picked just before they unfurl into ferns.
Montrealers are eating them up.
"For two or three weeks, they're everywhere and on every menu," said Marc Cohen, who runs Mile End restaurants Lawrence and Larry's.
"By the end, we're like, 'Okay. We're done with that now. We'll wait for another year.'"
So what does a fiddlehead taste like?
"Kind of like asparagus, a little bit like broccoli," he said.
Fiddleheads are harvested in the province's forests.
Produits de Nos Bois is North America's largest fiddlehead distributor.
The company emphasizes sustainable picking.
The fiddleheads are snapped, as opposed to cut, so that the plant returns each year.
At the processing plant, they are cleaned and sorted.
Some species are toxic and experts warn to never eat them raw.
They should be rinsed and soaked in boiling water before consumption.
