Hunt for Wild Persimmons in Prospect Park

We will collect the growing edible wild roots sych as Burdock, Sassafras, ginkgo trees, and Sechuan pepper.

Various roots thrive in the park late in the season:
Burdock root, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, abounds in cultivated areas throughout the park. The leaves are all but decayed, yet you can still use the remnants to locate the massive taproots. Try using them to make Burdock Pickles. Wild carrots are a spectacularly delicious variant of commercial carrots, but with more flavor, and with white roots.

Common evening primrose has no commercial counterpart. This widespread, moist, white taproot tastes sweet and peppery at the same time. Sassafras, the original source of root beer, is a tree that grows in the woods and thickets. You can use the outer layer of the root as a seasoning, similar to cinnamon, or for beverages. And the dried, powdered springtime leaves, gumbo filé, thicken soups and stews. There are even sweet wild parsnips, outstanding in soups and stews, growing alongside the skating rink.

Participants will also find plenty of leafy green vegetables, such as hedge mustard, lamb's-quarters (a wild spinach), chickweed (which tastes like corn), savory dandelions, parsley-flavored, goutweed, and garlicky garlic mustard and field garlic.While most nut trees are already out of season, Prospect Park's ginkgo trees will be at their peak. Inside a malodorous orange fruit you'll find a white, almond-shaped kernel with a soft green nut inside. This Chinese delicacy tastes like a combination of green peas and Limburger cheese. Sold in health food stores and advertised on TV, Ginkgo biloba improves circulation and immune function.

This is still a good time to collect Sechuan pepper, an American species closely-related to the more familiar spice used in Chinese cuisine. Grind up the small, hard, dry fruits and use them to give any dish a unique form of pungency. There's even a late-season fruit in season now: the American persimmon. It's an especially delicious fruit, and if storm winds haven't dispersed it, we should be able to shake the season's last fruit from the branches. With lots of rain and a little luck, the group may even find gourmet brick top mushroom, oyster mushrooms and enoki mushrooms emerging from trees and stumps.  

Notes:

• Participants should be dressed for the weather, and be aware of very bad subway service. Trains are often cancelled due to track work. 
• No sandals (there are mosquitoes, thorns and poison ivy). 
• Everyone should have plastic bags for veggies and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, which spoil in plastic, containers for berries from late spring through fall, water and lunch, and extra layers when it's cold. 
• Digging implements and pocket knives are optional. 
• Dogs are permitted. 
• Children are encouraged to attend.
• There's no smoking whatsoever at any time.

The 4-hour walking tour begins at the stone benches along the stone walls, at Prospect Park's Grand Army Plaza entrance.