The rhizome of wood fern was sometimes used as a starchy food by the native peoples. Some of the early people also pit baked the rhizome insides and used them for food. They described the taste similar to that of a sweet potato. If you get a cut, pulp from a pounded rhizome can be spread over it using a cloth.
Liquid squeezed out of the leaves was at one time used as a hair wash. Wood Fern�s fiddleheads, with the scaly coverings removed, were added to soups and boiled and eaten with seal oil and dried fish.
Harvest
In the spring, the fresh fronds (fiddleheads) sprouting up from wood fern can be harvested. The root is best harvested in the early fall.
Habitat
Wood Fern succeeds well in shady, moist areas as opposed to drier habitats.
It prefers a moist, neutral to a more acidic soil.
