The last frigid moisture from melted snow and ice has seeped away from the forest’s floor and has been replaced by that from warm spring showers. With the change has come a stirring of new life. The mat of last fall’s leaves, once as packed and hard as the snow above it, cracks and heaves up in response to the mix of rain and sun.

Just about now some of the tastiest and most nourishing of wild vegetables are beginning to emerge across Michigan’s outdoors. First are the leeks, wild onions that show themselves as green spears, reaching up from the deep, black mulch where woods and swamps meet. And if a spring fed creek flows near, watercress, a delicate salad ingredient will likely be growing in green patches, like a mass of tiny lily pads, half the size of a dime.

Along most any waterway new cattails will soon begin to shoot upward. Their roots, set deep in the bottom of lake or stream, are somewhat like an iris root. Their taste is something like a cucumber and the texture between that and a water chestnut. These are also tasty ingredients for a white salad.

But it is the breaking up of the forest’s leaf strewn floor that gets that most attention. Scores of sharp-eyed hunters search these places, alert to what has punched the leaf cover upward. The little tents are everywhere, tent poles made from a dozen forms of life. Each damp night followed by a warm morning changes the whole scene. And when the tents are pitched on the fungus poles of morel mushrooms, the hunters smile. For many, these are the most precious prizes of spring.

But there is still another early treat that I have sought in recent years, fiddlehead ferns. In our state, of course, there aren’t the authentic, think ostrich ferns. Those are found in Alaska and the far north. Still our own bracken ferns, if snapped off when four to six inches tall and properly prepared, are a delicious and unique vegetable. We steam them briefly and garnish with butter and salt to taste. The result is something between a young green bean and asparagus.

During the next month all this lush wild produce is available for the picking. Only a plant guide is needed for first time hunters for identifying these treats. Follow that up with a wild food recipe book and a bit of creativity.

And are these foods nourishing? Mary Carey, in her book “Lets Taste Alaska,” says: “One hundred grams of fiddleheads contain 71% of the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin A, 25% of niacin, 13% of riboflavin, and 46% of vitamin C. It also contains at least 10% of the RDA of magnesium, phosphorous and iron. What’s more, it’s a natural for most diets, low in sodium (salt) and high in potassium.”

There are a number of books that contain wild mushroom identifications and recipes. For safety’s sake one of these should be consulted, especially when dealing with the later appearing and much bigger white morel.

But right now the shopping for these vegetables is the thing. Where else can one select from wild and delicate treats while spring flowers nod about them and perfume the very air?