Forest Park (Teens/Adults)

This is one of the best places in the world for fall foraging, with a wide selection of wild herbs, greens, roots, nuts, and mushrooms, even in late fall. Habitats include miles of mature forest, as well as the trail edges and the disturbed, overgrown, and cultivated habitats, all providing homes for many diverse, renewable species.

Before we even enter the park, we'll stop at a row of ginkgo trees across the street from the meeting spot. A relic from the days of the dinosaurs, this tree provides delicious kernels, protected by a malodorous fruit, which are great in Chinese food, and as an alternative to cheese in vegan dishes.  

Right next to the ginkgoes are Japanese yew bushes, with delicious, sweet, jelly like fruit. You have to spit out the single seed each berry contains, as you would with a cherry seed. Eat enough of the poisonous seeds, and they'll stop your brain from telling your heat to beat, causing death (unless you're Donald Trump, who has no brain, and has no heart!)

Once inside the park, we'll find spicy hedge mustard greens and poor man's pepper, along with field garlic and common plantain, growing on lawns. Behind a playground near our starting point, we'll find a large stand of burdock, delicious, but hard to dig up. Here it's growing in loose, soft soil, so it's much more accessible than usual. Use it in soups, stews, rice, or Japanese dishes, or turn it into "Wildman's" Vegan Beef Jerky.

Another choice root vegetable deeper in the park is sweet cicely, which tastes like black licorice. This one's easy to unearth, and there's so much in Forest Park, you can't harm the habitat by collecting reasonable quantities.

The forest is one of the best for mushrooms. We'll be looking for late-season fungi such as giant puffballs, pear-shaped puffballs, oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, bricktops, and tree ears.

Meeting location is at the stone wall at Forest Park Drive and Park Lane (not Park Lane South), near the Park Dept.'s Overlook Building, 8040 Park Lane, in Kew Gardens. Don't go to the Woodhaven or Richmond Hill sides of the park!

Notes:

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

Children are encouraged to attend my tours and learn more about the planet they inhabit. If people own well-behaved dogs, they’re welcome on the tours too. (Mosquitoes and ticks are not welcome!)