Instructions: Combine the water and lemon oil in a pot with a steamer insert. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Place the fiddleheads in the steamer basket, cover and steam until tender, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper. Divide among four plates and serve immediately.

Polk wrote: "Its just about fiddlehead fern time here in the Northeast and perhaps in other areas down the Mid Atlantic. Molly ONeill in the Boston Globe today featured them. She wrote: ;Fiddlehead ferns epitomize vernal ephemera. Coiled as they are like tiny watch springs, fiddle heads are a sign: edible when tight and young, they become when fully unfurled unfit for human consumption." Fiddleheads are rare and fleeting and thus precious. And contentious. Which is as it should be."

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