Thanks to its varied habitats and combination of native and introduced species, Central Park is a great place for edible and medicinal wild plants and mushrooms. And in the fall, herbs, greens, nuts, berries, roots, and mushrooms all come into season simultaneously.

Burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, abounds in uncultivated areas throughout the park. So does sassafras, which tastes like root beer, makes a great tea, acts as a detoxifier, and provides a seasoning for sweet dishes.

Common spicebush (which also has berries you use as a seasoning), and ground ivy provide additional beverages, while the Kentucky coffee tree makes the world's best caffeine-free coffee substitute.

Black walnut trees grow scattered in several locations in the park. The nuts, rarely available commercially, have a stronger, more earthy flavor than their commercial relatives, and this wild variety is loaded with nutrients. Try using them in Black Walnut-Carob Cake.

Yew bushes bear ripe fruit in the fall, as do wild raisin shrubs and hawthorn trees. You can even eat the fruit of the wrinkled rose bush, called the rose hip. And just northwest of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, massive apple trees drop their outstanding heritage fruit (the apples are red inside) on unwary sunbathers.