Arthur Charest dumps a bucket of fiddleheads over a fan while cleaning his morning haul in Auburn on Wednesday. Charest uses a screen-bottomed drawer and a large fan to clean the skins from the edible ferns. Charest, 83, started picking fiddleheads with his brother a year after getting out of the service when he was 22 years old. Charest picked 77 pounds Tuesday, his most successful day this spring. “When I was younger I could pick 110 pounds,” he said. “I sell a few to pay for my gas and it gives me damn good exercise.” 

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