This was the fern commonly eaten in Europe as “fiddle heads”. As I have mentioned, we are now warned not to eat this fern due to a potential for cancer. I think that risk is overblown, but I take it seriously enough to mainly eat the Ostrich Fern instead.
Dioscorides wrote of what was likely this fern:
Thelypteris has leaves like those above, only not single-stemmed, but with many higher abnormal growths. The roots are underneath — long, thwarting, numerous, yellowish-black, and some also red. These are taken with honey as linctus [syrup] to expel broadworms. Three teaspoons of a decoction (taken as a drink with wine) expels roundworms. Given to women they cause barrenness [birth control], and if any conceives she aborts [abortifacient]. Dried, they are applied to ulcers that are
moist and hard to cure, and they heal the necks of yoked beasts. The newly put out leaves of it are used as vegetables, and eaten boiled they soften the bowels. It is also called nymphaea pteris, and the Romans call it lingua cervina.
There is a bit of confusion about this fern, as many old writers wrote of both the Bracken and Female Fern as the same plant. Mrs. Grieve clears it up:
The Bracken or Brake Fern, often called by old writers the Female Fern, is found in almost every part of the globe, except the extreme north and south; it grows more freely than any other of the Fern tribe throughout Britain, flourishing luxuriantly on heaths and moors.
Description---The rootstock is long and fibrous (creeping horizontally), very thick and succulent, throwing up solitary fronds at intervals, which soon cover large patches of ground. The stems are erect and treelike, velvety at the base, very brittle at first, afterwards tough and wiry, ordinarily 2 to 3 feet high, though in favourable soil and situations attaining a height of 8 to 10 feet. They bear branched fronds, twice or thrice pinnate, the pinnae more or less opposite, the pinnules long, narrow, smooth-edged, roundpointed and leathery. The sori on the back of the frond form a continuous line along the margin, being covered by an indusium attached to the slightly recurved edge of the pinnule.
The lower portion of the stem, when cut obliquely at the base, shows a pattern or figure formed of the wood bundles, which was supposed by Linnaeus to represent a spread eagle, hence he gave the species the name of Aquilina. The name of the genus, Pteris, is derived from pteron (a feather), from the feathery appearance of the fronds, in the same way that the English name Fern is a contraction of the Anglo-Saxon fepern (a feather). In some parts of England it is called 'King Charles in the Oak Tree.' In Scotland, it is said to be an impression of the Devil's Foot, and yet witches were reputed to detest this fern, for the reason that it bears on its cut stem the Greek letter X, which is the initial of Christos. In Ireland, it is called the Fern of God, because if the stem is cut into three sections, on the first of these will be seen the letter G, on the second O, and on the third D.
The spores of this and other Ferns are too minute to be visible to the naked eye. Before the structure of Ferns was understood, their reproduction was thought to be due to unknown agencies - whence various superstitions arose.
'This kinde of Ferne,' writes Lyte in 1587, 'beareth neither flowers nor sede, except we shall take for sede the black spots growing on the backsides of the leaves, the whiche some do gather thinking to worke wonders, but to say the truth, it is nothing els but trumperi and superstition.'
The minute spores were reputed to confer invisibility on their possessor if gathered at the only time when they were said to be visible, i.e. on St. John's Eve, at the precise moment at which the saint was born. Shakespeare says, I Henry IV:
'We have the receipt of Fern seed - we walk invisible.'
and Ben Jonson:
'I had no medicine, Sir, to walk invisible
No fern seed in my pocket.'
The Fern was also said to confer perpetual youth.
Medicinal Action and Uses---The Ancients used both the fronds and stems of the Bracken in diet-drinks and medicine for many disorders. Culpepper gives several uses for it:
'The roots being bruised and boiled in mead and honeyed water, and drunk kills both the broad and long worms in the body, and abates the swelling and hardness of the spleen. The leaves eaten, purge the belly and expel choleric and waterish humours that trouble the stomach. The roots bruised and boiled in oil or hog's grease make a very profitable ointment to heal the wounds or pricks gotten in the flesh. The powder of them used in foul ulcers causes their speedier healing.
'Fern, being burned, the smoke thereof drives away serpents, gnats, and other noisome creatures, which in fenny countries do, in the night-time, trouble and molest people lying in their beds with their faces uncovered.'
Gerard says that 'the root of Ferne cast into an hogshead of wine keepeth it from souring.' 'For thigh aches' (sciatica), says another old writer, 'smoke the legs thoroughly with Fern Bracken.'
Use as Food---The rhizome is astringent and also contains much starch, and has been considered recently as a possible source of starch for food and industry. There seems, however, to be some doubt as to whether its astringent properties do not render the Bracken unsuitable for human food. Humboldt reported that the inhabitants of Palmaand Gomera - islands of the Canary Group use Bracken as food, grinding the rhizome to powder and mixing it with a small quantity of barley-meal, the composition being termed goflo - the use of such food being, however, a sign of the extreme poverty of the inhabitants. The rootstock of the Esculent Brake (Pteris esculenta) was much used by the aborigines of New Zealand as food, when the British first settled there, and is also eaten much by the natives of the Society Islands and Australia.
The young fronds used sometimes to be used as a vegetable, being sold in bundles like Asparagus, but although considered a delicacy in Japan, they are somewhat flavourless and insipid to our modern Western taste, though they are not indigestible, and in the absence of all other fresh vegetables might prove useful. In Japan, before cooking, the tender shoots are first washed carefully in fresh water, then plunged into boiling water for two minutes or so, and then immersed again in cold water for a couple of hours. After this preparation they may be used for cooking, either being prepared as a pur‚e, like spinach, or like asparagus heads, being served with melted butter or some similar sauce.
In Siberia and in Norway, the uncoiled fronds have been employed with about twothirds of their weight of malt for brewing a kind of beer.
Other Uses---The astringent properties of the rhizome have caused a decoction to be recommended for the dressing and preparation of kid and chamois leather.
Before the introduction of soda from seasalt and other sources, the large amount of alkali obtained from the ashes of Bracken was found serviceable for glassmaking, both in the northern parts of this Island and in other countries, and was used freely for the purpose. The ash contains enough potash to be used as a substitute for soap. The ashes are mixed with water and formed into balls; these made hot in the fire are used to make lye for the scouring of linen. In the East, tallow boiled with Bracken ash is made into soap.
The potash yield of Bracken ash is so considerable that in view of the present scarcity of fertilizers, this source of supply is well worth attention. Potash is a particularly valuable fertilizer for potato and sugar-beet land, especially for light loams and gravels and sandy soils. It should be borne in mind by persons having access to quantities of Bracken, that they have a usable supply of this almost indispensable manure at hand, either for cultivating flowers or crops, at the expense of a little trouble.
The best time for cutting Bracken for burning is from June to the end of October, but the ash from green Bracken is much more valuable than from the old and withered plant. In the month of June, the fronds and stems hold as much as 20 per cent of potash, but in August that amount is reduced to 5 per cent, a large proportion having been given back to the rhizome or soil. Experiments have been contemplated by the Board of Agriculture to determine whether the cutting and incineration of Bracken in June, with a view to obtaining its potash content, would be economically feasible.
Where Bracken flourishes unchecked, it becomes injurious to sheep-farming by its encroachments on the grass on the runs, this being especially the case in the Lake District, and it would be of double advantage to cut it down and use it to supplement the reduced stocks of manures. Potash from Bracken is very soluble and should not be exposed to rain. The ashes as soon as cool should be collected and kept dry until required for use. It is stated that 50 tons of the dried fern produces 1 ton of potash. Instructions for dealing with Bracken are given by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland in Leaflets 18, 25, 39 and 42.
Formerly in both the green and the dried state, Bracken was used as fodder for cattle. When dry, it makes excellent litter for both horses and cattle, and forms also a very durable thatch. The young tops of the Fern are boiled in Hampshire for pigs' food, and the peculiar flavour of Hampshire bacon has sometimes been attributed to this custom. The fronds are much used as packing material for fruit, keeping it fresh and cool and imparting neither colour nor flavour. The dried fronds may be used in the garden for protecting tender plants.
In early spring, when dormant, large clumps may be lifted from moors or commons to serve as screens in the wilder parts of the garden, though the Fern is somewhat difficult to transplant and afterwards preserve with success, and is often destroyed by spring frosts. While growing in its natural habitats, Bracken is of value as cover and shelter for game.
In the seventeenth century it was customary to set growing Bracken on fire, believing that this would produce rain. A like custom of 'firing the Bracken' still prevails to-day on the Devonshire moors.
Stephen Harrod Buhner tells us more about the beer brewed using Bracken:
Bracken ferns are those prehistoric looking plants you may have seen in the movies that grow under old-growth trees in Washington rain forests. They evoke images of ancient times and dinosaurs. They also have been used as food, and as an ingredient in ales for thousands of years.
Bracken Fern Ale, ingredients:
3 pounds malt
2 pounds bracken fern fronds
2 gallons water
yeast
Boil the Bracken in 2 gallons water for one hour and strain the liquid. At 170 degrees F., pour liquid onto malt and let stand for 90 minutes. Drain liquid off malt, then sparge malt again, using the same liquid. Cool to 70 degrees and pour into a fermenter. Add yeast and ferment until done…
He goes on to explain that the bitterness and tanins in the ferm improve the flavor of the beer, help it store longer and that the beer is useful for diarrhea, dysentery and worms, in addition to being a pleasant tasting alcoholic beverage.
Bradford Angier wrote in Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants:
Although poisonous in large enough amounts, especially to cattle, the fronds for the bracken fern boiled with water and sugar were adjudged to be good medicine, especially for those with lung ailments. The fronds were also boiled with a syrup of this sort, in small portions, for liver troubles.
The roots, or actually rhizomes, when boiled into a stronger tea than usual, were used for worms, for the relief of digestive gas, and to quell diarrhea. Root tea was also advocated to soften caked breasts, although that brewed from the fronds was widely held to be dangerous for this purpose.
Ojibwa squaws were among those using the tea prepared from the rhizomes for cramps, while the Delawares recommended it as a diuretic to increase the flow of urine.
Inhalation of smoke from the dried fronds laid on the ebbing coals of a campfire – perhaps a few embers moved away from the main fire and covered with ashes so that the vegetation would fume instead of flame – was though to help headache.
Plants for A Future states:
The young shoots are diuretic, refrigerant and vermifuge. They have been eaten as a treatment for cancer. The leaves have been used in a steam bath as a treatment for arthritis. A decoction of the plant as been used in the treatment of tuberculosis. A poultice of the pounded fronds and leaves has been used to treat sores of any type and also to bind broken bones in place. The root is antiemetic, antiseptic, appetizer and tonic. A tincture of the root in wine is used in the treatment of rheumatism. A tea made from the roots is used in the treatment of stomach cramps, chest pains, internal bleeding, diarrhoea, colds and also to expel worms. The poulticed root is applied to sores, burns and caked breasts.
Edible parts of Bracken: Root - cooked. It can be dried and ground into a powder. The root is very fibrous so traditionally it was baked after being dried, the outer skin was peeled off and the roots pounded into a powder with sticks so that the inner fibres could be removed. The dried root will store for years. The root contains 60% starch. The dry weight content of starch is between 43 and 72%. This starch can be extracted from the roots and is used in making dumplings which are eaten with soya flour and sugar as a delicacy. The root has a somewhat constipating effect upon the body so is best eaten with foods that have a laxative quality. Young shoots, harvested when still unfurling, can be eaten raw or cooked. They can be used like asparagus or like spinach. Somewhat flavourless, though they are considered to be a delicacy in Japan. The fronds should be used when less than 20cm long, longer ones have a terrible taste. The shoots are somewhat bitter so they are often blanched for a few minutes in boiling water, then left to soak in cold water for two hours before being cooked. Although this might well improve the flavour, it will greatly reduce the nutritional value. The shoots should be steeped in lye first. Occasional use should cause no problems, but regular consumption is not advisable because the shoots might be carcinogenic. The plant yields an edible saccharine substance. (from the cooking root??).
Known hazards of Pteridium aquilinum: There are a number of reports regarding the possible health risks of this plant. The huge quantity of spores released by large areas of bracken are suggested to be implicated in stomach cancers. A recent study suggests that this is not such a problem in Britain as was once believed, the spores are not produced in such high quantities nor do they travel so far due to our normally humid atmosphere. The leaves and roots contain substances that deprive the body of vitamin B1 if they are eaten raw, though they are possibly alright cooked. The leaves are also said to be carcinogenic.
The Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants tells us:
American Indians used root tea for stomachaches; poulticed root for burns and sores, caked breasts; wash to promote hair growth; astringent, tonic. Historically, root tea used for worms. Warning: Poisonous in excess doses – disturbs thiamine metabolism. Recently reported to cause cancer in grazing animals; contains at least three carcinogens.
This article is an excerpt from
Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/11/medicinal-ferns-and-fern-allies.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMSZSJPS
PS. New today in my Woodcraft shop:
The Spring Foraging Cookbook: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-spring-foraging-cookbook.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRP63R54
Read about my other new books:
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings July-December, 2024
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html
Medicinal Weeds and Grasses of the American Southeast, an Herbalist's Guide
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/medicinal-weeds-and-grasses-of-american.html
Available in paperback on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47LHTTH
and
Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/confirmation-autobiography-of-faith.html
Available in paperback on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNK
and
Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide
Read about Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6: by Judson Carroll
Visit my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter:
Read about my new other books:
Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/11/medicinal-ferns-and-fern-allies.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMSZSJPS
The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-omnivores-guide-to-home-cooking-for.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGKX37Q2
Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast an Herbalist's Guide
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html
Available for purchase on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6
and
Growing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Else
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.html
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9R
The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35R
and
Christian Medicine, History and Practice: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.html
Available for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTB
Herbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.html
Also available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25
Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbs
Blog:
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/
Free Video Lessons: https://rumble.com/c/c-618325
Disclaimer
The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment