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阅读理解
Bolton，Vermont——Fourteen-year-old Ashley Stevens fell out of his canoe into the frigid Winooski River in Vermont, US, climbed onto the muddy bank and picked fiddleheads for five hours as his wet clothes stiffened and dried in the frosty spring air．
It was worth it．On that early May day．Ashley made $50 for the 86 pounds of ferns he hauled in to the weigh station．
And he's made about that much every day of the fiddlehead season．
“I know where to go, ”said Ashley, who grew up along the Winooski．
For four or five weeks a year in Vermont, fiddleheads, young ferns found near water in the northeast, are big business for anyone who cares to pick them．Before they uncurl to their mature height, the plants resemble violin heads．
The ferns, which taste like asparagus when cooken, are usually fried in butter or olive oil and served as side dish．
Restaurants offer them as a seasonal specialty; supermarkets sell them by the pound．
John Farrar, the fiddlehead king of Richmond, Vermont, parks his pickup every evening and waits for the pickers to bring in their mesh bags of fiddleheads for weighing．Farrar often collects more than 450 kilograms of the tightly curled green disce．
He drives them to WS Wells and Son in Wilton, Maine, where they are prepared for sale fresh, in cans, and dried in soup mix．Wells processes about 35 tons a year, all from local pickers who bring in the fiddleheads by bag or bucket．
Farrar is careful to take only ostrich ferns．Some other kinds are said to cause cancer in cows or stomach upset in humans．
“They all kind of look like fiddleheads, ”said Butch Wells, owner WS Wells and Son, “I've had people drive for two hours with 90 kilograms of the wrong kind．”
He said he believed he was having some fiddleheads for supper that night, “I've had them in stews, and I've had them in quiches, which all sometimes called Impossible Pie．And we just have them plain, as a side dish．”
Even his kids eat fiddlebads．
“They like pickled fiddleheads, ”Wells said．“They don't like them any other way．”
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