The Bedford Post Inn (Teens/Adults)

The immediate grounds of this beautiful Inn, owned by actor Richard Gere, the adjacent forest, and the nearby roadsides promise large quantities of wild foods at the beginning of summer.

We'll start with the plants growing in the grass near the upper parking lot, including Asiatic dayflowers, garlic mustard, poor man's pepper, and bitter dock. Then we'll head into the woods, where we'll collect indigenous species such as greenbrier, sassafras and black birch, as well as the ramps or wild leeks, which are rampant in some spots. The best-tasting member of the onion family on Earth, top chefs prize the intense flavor of this plant for all dishes that normally use onions. The leaves are gone by now, but the bulbs are perfect, and all you need to do is spot the flowers to dig them up. Furthermore, there are so many, everyone will collect their fill without impacting the environment.

Thickets will be full of black raspberries, way better-tasting than the store-bought variety, and if enough rain falls beforehand, summer mushrooms will be up. We'll be on the lookout for scrumptious chicken mushrooms, gourmet chanterelles, prized black trumpets, black-staining polypores, Berkeley's polypore, dryad's saddle, and various bolete species.

The 3-hour foraging tour of Bedford Post Inn begins in the upper parking lot at 954 Old Post Rd., Bedford, NY

Note:

• Participants should be dressed for the weather, and be aware of very bad subway service. Trains are often canceled 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.