March 24, 2019Central Park provides a great window into the world of wild foods of early spring. It's the start of the season for wild salad greens, and we'll be finding great quantities of these weedy delicacies. Pungent field garlic is everywhere. You use the leaves like scallions or chives, and the bulbs like onions. Spicy mustard greens, such as poor man's pepper, hedge mustard, hairy bittercress, and garlic mustard, pops up on lawns left and right.
April 6, 2019Central Park provides a great window into the world of wild foods in early spring. Making a meal with these plants is simple at this time. For an appetizer, try simmering field garlic bulbs in diluted vinegar with Italian seasonings to make an outstanding pickle.
It's the peak of the season for wild greens, and we'll be finding large quantities of wild leafy vegetables. Spicy mustard greens, such as poor man's pepper, hedge mustard, and garlic mustard may pop up on lawns and along pathways anywhere. Daylily shoots will be at their peak. With their onion-string bean flavor, they're as good in salads as they are in any kind of savory dish.
April 27, 2019Central Park provides a great window into the world of wild foods atthe transition of early- and mid-spring. Making a meal with these plants is simple at this time of the year.
For an appetizer, try simmering field garlic bulbs in diluted vinegar with Italian seasonings, to make an outstanding pickle. It's the peak of the season for wild salad greens, and we'll be finding large quantities of leafy, green ingredients. Spicy mustard greens, such as garlicky garlic mustard, hot hedge mustard, even hotter poor man's pepper, and still more pungent field pennycress, abound alongside the paths throughout the park.
May 19, 2019Central Park provides a great window into the world of wild foods of mid- to late spring. It's the peak of the season for wild salad greens, and we'll be finding great quantities of ingredients: Spicy mustard greens, such as garlicky garlic mustard, hot hedge mustard, and even hotter poor man's pepper, will abound on lawns or under trees anywhere, and lemony sheep sorrel thrives in sunny places. Offset their flavors in a salad with milder-tasting greens such as violet leaves, lamb's-quarters, Asiatic dayflower, and chickweed, also quite abundant. With the inclusion of tender, cucumber-flavored cattail shoots, you'll have the best salad you've ever eaten.
Wild mushrooms, if present, will provide a gourmet side dish. We could find fairy ring mushrooms, wine-cap stropharias, or chicken mushrooms on this tour, especially if there have been days of heavy rain beforehand.
June 15, 2019Central Park, always a great park for foraging, is spectacular in late spring. The wild fruits alone make the park worth visiting. Two species of mulberries, red and white, and their pink hybrid, drop berries everywhere. You only need to position a drop cloth under a branch and shake, to harvest a year's supply. These berries are perfect in any fruit recipe. They make great jam, and they freeze well too. When the bushes get full sunlight, the juneberries (serviceberries) are also spectacular. With a sweet flavor like blueberries, apples, and almonds, it's a testament to our disregard for nature that no one ever cultivated this top-notch fruit.
June 29, 2019Central Park, always a great park for foraging, is spectacular in late spring. The fruits alone make the park worth visiting. Two species of mulberries, red and white, and their pink hybrid, drop berries everywhere. You only need to position a drop cloth under a branch and shake, to harvest a year's supply. These berries are perfect in any fruit recipe. They make great jam, and they freeze well too.
When the bushes get full sunlight, the juneberries (serviceberries) are also spectacular. With a sweet flavor like blueberries, apples, and almonds, it's a testament to our disregard for nature that no one has ever cultivated this top-notch fruit.
July 28, 2019Central Park provides a great window into the world of wild foods of mid-summer. Wild herbs and greens will be plentiful. Spicy mustard greens, such as poor man's pepper and hedge mustard will wake up your palate. Add them to a salad with sweet-and-sour, crunchy purslane, string bean-flavored Asiatic dayflower, spinach-flavored lamb's quarters, and sour wood- or sheep sorrel, and you'll have the best and most healthful salad you've ever eaten. Medicinal and culinary herbs such as epazote and ground ivy will be abundant as well.
August 10, 2019Thanks to its varied habitats and combination of native and introduced species, this world-famous park overflows with wild food in mid-summer.
Wild fruit far surpassing anything available commercially also fills the park. Thickets will still be lined with such sweet, juicy European cut-leaf blackberries, you'll forget all about your iPhone!
This is also the peak of the season for black cherries. This native species bears small, round, addictive, bittersweet fruits—great sweetened, thickened, and cooked into desserts.
Cornelian cherries, fruits of a dogwood species that taste like plums, grow throughout the park, and they're just as good as they're abundant, elderberry bushes, prized in Europe but ignored in America (where no one respects their elders), grow in plain sight, completely overlooked. There's even a wild peach tree, with fruit at the peak of their ripeness, growing on a hillside along the lake.
August 25, 2019Thanks to its varied habitats and combination of native and introduced species, this world-famous park overflows with wild food.
Wild fruit far surpassing anything available commercially also fills the park. Thickets will still be lined with such sweet, juicy European cut-leaf blackberries, you'll forget all about your iPhone! This is also the season for black cherries. This native species bears small, round, addictive, bittersweet fruits—great sweetened, thickened, and cooked into desserts. Cornelian cherries, fruits of a Turkish dogwood species that taste like plums, and grow just North of The Delacourt Theater, and tasty heritage apples grow across the drive from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. They’re just as good, and even more abundant.
Please 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.
- Please bring plastic bags for vegetables and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, drinking water, and a pen (to sign in).
- Dogs are permitted. Children are encouraged to attend.
- There's no smoking whatsoever at any time.
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