Foraging Classes in NYC, New York

March 24, 2019 Central 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...

March 24, 2019 Central 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...

This scenic woodland trail, running between houses in a residential area, is a great place for foraging in early spring. Participants will see many common, renewable shoots, greens, flowers, roots, and mushrooms that abound here during the foraging tour. Of course, one of the first things you'll learn will be violets. The sweet, mild leaves are great...

Agave have been harvested from the arid "desert forests" of Mexico for over 9,000 years. Today, the genus is best known for the production of mezcal, which can be made from dozens of species, many still wild harvested today.  Join NYBG ethnobotanist (and bartender!) Brian Hockaday to explore the history, biology, and taxonomy of this fascinating...

Prospect Park is a great place for foragers to explore at the end of the winter. Like Central Park, this Olmstead-designed landscape features a variety of habitats filled with delicious native and exotic plants. Wild coffee grows along the sidewalk that runs along the park's east side. Unrelated to commercial coffee, you can collect the seeds of the...

In this workshop, participants will get an introduction to mycology, with emphasis on cultivating the bizarre, macabre mushrooms Cordyceps militaris. Topics will include the evolutionary history, life cycle, cultivation, molecular mycology and more! We will discuss low-tech and high-tech methods for cultivating mushrooms, followed by hands-on learning...

Forest Park is one of the best places for foragers in mid-spring. Get lost in this vast park, and you'll have plenty to eat (that is, if you can distinguish the gourmet plants from the deadly ones.) It boasts a large, mature, secondary growth forest, trail edges, thickets, and cultivated areas—all overflowing with wild plants. Burdock,...

Forest Park's woodlands, cultivated areas, and thickets make it a great place for early summer foraging, and a perfect place to celebrate Independence Day. Luscious black raspberries are in season now, and we'll hunt for them in thickets throughout the day. We'll be looking for prized daylily flowers, in bloom in partially shaded areas throughout...

June 16, 2019 Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foragers to search for wild foods in late spring. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with edible and medicinal wild plants. Red, white, and pink mulberries will be at their peak now. Too perishable for commercial...

June 16, 2019 Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foragers to search for wild foods in late spring. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with edible and medicinal wild plants. Red, white, and pink mulberries will be at their peak now. Too perishable for commercial...

Prospect Park is a great place for foragers to explore at the end of the winter. Like Central Park, this Olmstead-designed landscape features a variety of habitats filled with delicious native and exotic plants. Wild coffee grows along the sidewalk that runs along the park's east side. Unrelated to commercial coffee, you can collect the seeds of the...

This large wetland park offers vast foraging opportunities, even as winter approaches. We begin with a small, young woodland. It contains large quantities of field garlic, with leaves like chives and bulbs like onions or garlic. There's also garlic mustard, a garlic-flavored mustard green with a taproot that tastes like horseradish. Nearby grows sassafras,...

March 9, 2019 Saxon Woods Park's forested areas, cultivated places, and tailsides are excellent places for late winter foraging, and we'll be very busy with a variety of common, widespread, renewable native and exotic plant species as we explore these habitats. The sunny borders between woodlands and open areas provide prime habitat for wild herbs...

This scenic woodland trail, running between houses in a residential area, is a great place for foraging in early spring, and, beginning at 11:45 AM, foraging expert Violet Brill, America's First Lady of Foraging, will be showing you all the many common, renewable shoots, greens, flowers, roots, and mushrooms that abound here during the course of a...