Read 2015 essay, “Fiddleheads with the “Hawk””
By Andrew Harris, pictured is Ron with daughters celebrating his 85th birthday
News arrived yesterday that one of Wellsville’s most colorful characters has died. Ron Tomah was a good friend of my grandfather, my father, and mine. He was beloved by his many friends at the Wellsville Elks Lodge, the American Legion, VFW post 2530, and the Wellsville Country Club.
He was nicknamed the “Hawk,” many years ago, reflecting his Native American lineage. I was introduced to Tomah as a child and we became good pals later in life. Many of those adventures were on the riverbanks, cold beer in hand, hunting for wild foods. He taught me some great lessons about life and the bounty that mother nature provides.
Back when I was an occasional writer for the now-defunct Cuba Patriot, I penned this essay in 2015:
Fiddleheads with the “Hawk”
I can personally remember talk of fiddleheads and Ron Tomah before I was ten years old, the two were synonymous in my young mind. Three decades have past that memory and the man that I was introduced to as, “Hawk” has been a constant friendly face in Wellsville that many know as just Tomah.
Not many months of May passed by without fiddleheads being on my list of missions to accomplish: Learn more about them, find them, and share them with people, just like Hawk. I’ve managed to locate a few small patches of ostrich fern fiddleheads, but the big patches of fiddleheads were still a mystery. Every year I daydream about Tomah’s patch of fern, and all the perfect spiral heads of a delicate wild annual plant that we mostly take for granted.
Fiddleheads are the most common name for fern shoots, harvested as they pop up out of the ground, usually in the middle of May. Of the many fern species that can be found, only a few are really good eating, and most fiddleheads come from the ostrich fern(Matteuccia struthiopteris). These ferns are a very common plant, populating riverbeds and bordering wetlands throughout New York and New England. Fiddleheads are only in season for a few weeks of the year, typically at the same time the trees start to leaf out.
Ron Tomah is part of the Maliseet Nation, a tribe of Algonquin from New Brunswick. He came to Wellsville as a matter of chance, well actually football. His parents moved the family off the reservation and to Maine when Ron was ten. When his brother in law got the job coaching Wellsville High School football Ron moved to town and found a home. Years have passed as an interior painter, rarely missing a golf tournament at Wellsville Country Club, and donating countless hours to the Wellsville American Legion and Elks Lodge. The Hawk has served his adopted village well.
“I can remember being in a canoe with my grandparents all day picking fiddleheads. We traveled up and down the St. John River, stopping at patches until we had burlap potato sacks full. It wouldn’t take two or three hours to sell them all at the farmers market”, Tomah recalled. Fiddleheads were a major cash crop in New Brunswick and Maine which many Maliseet foraged for as seasonal income.
When he settled in Wellsville it didn’t take long for Tomah to find several large fern patches and enlighten his friends to the all-natural delight. With a taste and texture similar to asparagus, fiddleheads are very nutritious, providing doses of phosphorus and vitamins A and C. Tomah taught his friends how to cook them with salt pork and has hosted dozens of fiddlehead dinners at the Elks Lodge 1495. A typical dinner served over twenty pounds of fiddleheads with “potato salad and a dessert, maybe a ham, nothing fancy”. Tomah has shared his spring forage with hundreds of friends and Elks.
I was lucky enough to tag along with the “Hawk” for one of this year’s hunts on the Genesee River bottom. When I picked Tomah up he got in the car and gave me directions to a place I knew well. I’d been walking past thousands of fiddleheads who had turned to ferns all my life on the Genesee River. As I wandered through thousands of fern mixed with “skunk cabbage” Ron shared some knowledge from his grandfather:
“Can you see these heads that have a dusty blue surface? I don’t’ pick these; I guess they can make you sick. I only pick the bright green heads from a plant with a shine to the stalk.”
In all my research on fiddlehead foraging I hadn’t heard that advice. They say don’t eat the smaller species of ferns, or the ferns with too much fuzz, and don’t eat fiddle heads that have unfurled too much. In my, ‘not exactly expert’ opinion, any reported sickness that was associated with fiddleheads comes from the Bracken Fern, a smaller common fern that doesn’t digest well for some. I would avoid all the smaller species of fern and always wash and cook fiddleheads thoroughly.
Tomah will tell you that he is getting tired, but then again he is eighty five. Our recent forage included over a mile of walking and picking and a customary Pabst Blue Ribbon to celebrate. Tomah and his companion Jan Hungerford took some time to show me pictures from when his tribe met King George VI and Queen Elizabeth when they arrived for royal tour of Canada in 1938.
Gathering fiddleheads each spring is a worthy tradition that was bestowed on me and many others in Wellsville, largely by Ron Tomah and the Meliseet tribe. A slice of his culture will live on in ours for many generations to come. Give fiddlehead foraging a try! Not only are they a great source of free, nutrient dense food, but foraging in the spring can be magical.
My three year old has gathered and eaten hundreds this season and her recipe is worth sharing:
Gather 20-30 heads per person and soak in water for ten. Rinse and remove as much casing as possible before boiling for at least 3 minutes. Drain and sautee’ heads in butter until they start to brown. Finish with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and a dash of hot sauce. Eat with your fingers or a fork!
