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Nature's apothecary is right outside growing in our meadows, woodlands and even our City parks. Summer is one of the most abundant seasons to forage, and discover creative ways to use our native and invasive wild weeds for food and medicine. Join herbalist, Dawn Petter as we discover what wonders are growing beneath our feet. Please dress for the...

Central Park provides a great window into the world of wild foods of mid-spring. It's the peak of the season for wild salad greens, and we'll be finding great quantities of renewable 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,...

A great abundance of edible and medicinal wild plants and mushrooms makes this park a great place for edible and medicinal plants and mushrooms in late summer. Burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, abounds in cultivated areas throughout the park. You can also use this invasive species as a superb root vegetable, or even...

With a lakeside, cultivated areas, picnic grounds, and woods, Belmont Lake State Park is a great place for wild foods in late winter, and everything the group will be finding is renewable. The plants repeatedly get trimmed down by lawn mowers, but they’re adapted to defend themselves by regeneration. Many of the foreign plants here are also invasive. ...

The sunny borders between woodlands and the parking lot provide prime habitat for various wild herbs and greens. We'll look for sheep sorrel and wood sorrel, with their wonderful lemony flavors, plus goutweed, which tastes like parsley, carrots, and celery. Poor man's pepper, a common, delicious wild mustard, also appears in great abundance in sunny...

The 17-year-old foraging expert had been co-leading tours with her dad, "Wildman" Steve Brill, since she was 9. "I'm glad to be rid of her," exclaimed her grumpy father. "She finds all the plants and mushrooms faster than I do, she bosses me around, and she steals all my jokes!" Sheldrake Lake is great for early spring foraging. Right out of the...

Central 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 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...

With a lakeside, cultivated areas, picnic grounds, and woods, Belmont Lake State Park is a great place for wild foods in late winter, and everything the group will be finding is renewable. The plants repeatedly get trimmed down by lawn mowers, but they’re adapted to defend themselves by regeneration. Many of the foreign plants here are also invasive. ...

The 17-year-old foraging expert had been co-leading tours with her dad, "Wildman" Steve Brill, since she was 9. "I'm glad to be rid of her," exclaimed her grumpy father. "She finds all the plants and mushrooms faster than I do, she bosses me around, and she steals all my jokes!" Sheldrake Lake is great for early spring foraging. Right out of the...

June 6 This well-known greenway, with open, sunny habitats, wooded sections, thickets, and edges, is ideal for finding the best edible wild plants of early spring, and this tour, led by Violet Brill, will give you the best opportunity to learn about, collect, and enjoy some of our best common, tasty, renewable species. In open, sunny areas, we'll...

The seashore is always a special place for edible wild plants, and autumn is no exception. In addition to the beach habitat and adjacent fields and thickets, it's got cultivated areas, wetlands, and woodland trails. The most spectacular find in the sand within sight of the ocean is sea rocket, is a pungent, succulent mustard found nowhere else, and...

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,...

Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foragers in late winter. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with wild plants. Now is the time for roots. Burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, as well as an invasive foreign species, abounds in human-disturbed...

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, and Violet Brill,...

Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foraging in late fall. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with wild plants, even in late fall. This is the time to search for roots. Here are some we'll be finding: Burdock, an invasive, Eurasian, expensive, detoxifying herb sold...