Floodwaters may have contaminated much of this season's fiddleheads

A New Brunswickfavouritemay be off the menu for many people in the province this spring.

The Emergency Measures Organization and the Department of Health arewarning that fiddleheads found growing in flooded areas may be contaminated andunfit to eat.

"Fiddleheads which may have been exposed to floodwaters may not be safe to eat," said Dr.Na-KoshieLamptey, the regional medical officer of health.

It'snot clear exactly which areas are contaminated.

"We don't have a mechanism to be able to determine that in every area where fiddleheads grow in the wild, so we ask people to use their best judgment that if it's an area where there's been flooding, the safer option is not to consume it," Lamptey said.

Fiddleheads are harvested from riverbanks each year after the spring freshet,but this year's crop is at risk of containing contaminants from raw sewage, fuels and chemicals leaked into rivers duringrecord-high floods.

"Due to the extent of flooding in private andcommercialproperties, we do not recommend harvesting or buying wild edible plant,s which would have beenbudding or had their edible portions exposed to the floodwaters," saidLamptey

Some fiddlehead harvesters agree with the warning for certain rivers.

"Basically,all the St. John and theJemseg,"saidDwight Thornton, owner of Fiddlehead Heaven in Windsor."But theTobiqueand Restigouche, those are going to be some good fiddleheads."

"But it's going to hurt the people buying and selling that's for sure."

Thornton saidhe's been picking fiddleheads for 56 years.Retired as of this year, he saidit's not the first time the province has warned the springdelicacy might be contaminated.

"They did this in 2010,too," said Thornton.

Thespringplantplaysa large role in New Brunswick culture. Inadditionto being the mainingredientin dozens of seasonal dishes,fiddleheadsis often used as a symbol of the province, featured on statues, road signs and the provincial crest.