Food forage tour in Alley Pond Park, New York

The purpose of this hands-on program is to learn about the environment and get back in touch with nature. By studying foraging and nature, we enjoy our renewable resources and reaffirm our commitment to preserving and rebuilding our ecological riches.

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, with a root you can use for tea, as a sweet seasoning, or for making root beer.

Then we circumnavigate Oakland Lake, checking out stands of sour-flavored curly (yellow) dock, bitter-savory dandelion greens, corn-flavored chickweed, and wintergreen-flavored black birch trees.

Later, we'll find savory watercress, escaped from cultivation, in a small stream, and cabbage-flavored winter cress, never captured for culitvation—both members of the mustard family.

After lunch, we proceed to the marsh proper, where a stand of burdock root, normally very tenacious, yields with minimum effort because it grows in wet, composted soil. There are also sweet wild parsnips (outstanding in soups) nearby, growing hidden in the bushes.

Then we'll find crab apple trees with the most remarkably sour fruit.

Farther on, we'll find more roots in quantity: white-colored wild carrots and immense, peppery-sweet common evening primrose.

And with lots of rain and a little luck, the group may even find gourmet oyster mushrooms, brick tops, and enoki mushrooms emerging from trees and stumps.

What to bring:

Plastic bags for vegetables and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, plastic containers for berries, drinking water, and a pen (to sign in).

It is also recommended you bring:

Lunch, knife, digger, work gloves, note pad, whistle (so you won't get lost), insect repellent, sun hat or warm hat, an extra sweater, rain gear or boots — Always dress appropriately.

The 4-hour walking tour begins at 11:45 AM, at Springfield and Northern Blvds. Bookings must be made at least 24 hours in advance to reserve a place.

"Wildman" Steve Brill is America’s best-known forager. He has an impressive and extensive resumé, covering everything from environmental educator to natural foods cook. Steve is also an author, having written books such as The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook (2002), Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal plants in Wild and Not-So-Wild Places (1994), and Shoots and Greens of Early Spring (1986, revised 2008).

He has been mentioned in numerous newspaper and magazine features and has written his own editorials too. Aside from being famous for running the Wild Food and Ecology tours in New York, Steve has additionally appeared on the radio and on dozens of local, national and international TV programs. Such examples include appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Today Show and CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.

But he’s best-known for having been arrested and handcuffed by undercover park rangers for eating a dandelion in Central Park!