Croton Aqueduct,
Sunday, June 20

This long trail used to be where water was brought to Manhattan from Westchester. Now it's a beautiful walking and biking path lined with all manner of edible weeds. Here are some of the autumn plants we can expect at the eve of summer:

We'll certainly find plenty of field garlic, a member of the onion/garlic family that comes up in the spring and re-emerges in the fall. The sharp-flavored underground bulbs and above-ground bulblets are in season now.

Spicy poor man's pepper and sour-flavored sheep sorrel and wood sorrel are among the best greens around at this time. We'll also look for lady's thumb, lambs-quarters, and Asiatic dayflower. And if someone's kind enough to volunteer to get bitten by a mosquito, we'll apply jewelweed (also effective against other skin irritations and insect bites, and a preventative for poison ivy), always common available to cure the bite.

Burdock, with a hearty, potato-flavored taproot, grows everywhere, and we're certain to find one location with soft soil where we'll be able to be able to dig it out easily.

Wild fruits are coming into season, and one of the best is the mulberry, at its peak at this time. We'll select trees with the best-tasting fruit and shake the branches over a dropcloth.