Two years ago I had the pleasure of being caught between the moon and New York City. Made familiar to us through so many books, movies, and television shows, New York is one of North America's largest urban experiments. I was thrilled to get a chance to explore it, and even more thrilled to learn about Steve Brill, www.wildmanstevebrill.com
Steve Brill is an expert food forager, he conduct tours throughout parks in the north east of the USA. I had the opportunity to catch him for a tour of Central Park, Manhattan.
At over 800 acres, Central Park was one of the first, and is still one of the largest landscaped city parks in the world. Surrounded by skyscrapers and the bustle of Manhatten, it is a welcome island of peace and nature, enjoyed both by tourists and locals. Check out www.centralpark.com/pages/history.html to find a good article on its creation.
As I arrived in the middle of November, I was expecting the foraging tour to be short and sparse. I was wrong and Wild Man Brill had us hiking for almost two hours, finding new things to eat around every corner. Here are a few of the plants we saw...
Burdock root, roasted it makes a nice hearty tea, but it is also a recurring ingredient in many tasty Japanese dishes.
Wild onion, it is even got bulbs, easy to identify, both in the wild and on the plate
The Norths version of Persimmon, tasty, too bad the photo is so bad
Crab apples, don't even ripen in Central Park until November
Lambs Quarter's a nice mild tasting green that is tasty in winter salads.
This tour was a wonderful way to appreciate New York City, to learn about the plants of the north east and to learn more about foraging in general, as well. I highly recommend it for anyone travelling to the Big Apple!
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