Rubicon,
A fiddlehead fern is nothin but a young wild fern that grows here in Virginia, and it must grow in WVA too. In the spring, the ferns in the crick and riverbottoms sprout and the stem curls up at the top like the top of a fiddle. That's when they are prime fer eatin.
I usually take em and boil em with some bacon or sometimes I fry em....just like you'd make fried cabbage. Ramps are good that way too. I also mix em up with salads.
Dandelions and poke is good...but you gotta be careful wth poke. You can only eat the young sprouts...once they git big, they're poisonous.
Layyours, ya'll got wild peppermint in WVA? We got a ton of it here in VA...but I live too fer east fer em. When I go down home to visit the folks, I usually grab a bushel along with some ginseng and catnip, but I aint been down home in a while. Catnip is easy to find here...the latter 2 aint so easy.
