Forest Park is one of the best places for foragers in early spring. Get lost in this vast park, and at least you'll have enough to eat. (That is, if you can distinguish the gourmet plants from the deadly ones!) It boasts a large, mature secondary growth forest, trail edges, thickets, and cultivated areas—all overflowing with wild plants.

This is the season for roots. Burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, abounds near the playgrounds we'll be passing as we begin the tour. The cooked root tastes like a combination of potatoes and artichokes. Nearby, we'll find honewort, an herb with a flavor similar to parsley, celery, and carrots.

Sassafras, on the other hand, grows in open places in the woods. It tastes like root beer, which you make from the taproots. You can also use it for brewing a delicious, detoxifying tea, or as a cinnamon-like seasoning.

The black birch tree, of birch beer fame, is a common forest tree that tastes like wintergreen. The twigs, which you can chew, make a delicious non-steroidal anti-inflammatory herb tea. And you can thicken, season, and sweeten the tea to make black birch Jello!

Another root we'll look for along the park's paths is the tuber of the hog peanut, with a flavor akin to raw peanuts.

Everyone will also find plenty of leafy green vegetables, such as chickweed, which tastes like corn, pungent garlic mustard roots with their garlicky leaves, mild-flavored violets, and spicy field garlic.

Early spring shoots will be at their peaks. We'll be finding false Solomon's seal, which tastes like asparagus; hot-sweet daylily shoots, and Japanese knotweed, with a sour flavor akin to rhubarb, loads of vitamin C, and resveratrol, which reduces the risk of heart disease.

With lots of rain and a bit of luck, gourmet oyster mushrooms, tree ears, and enoki mushrooms may also be emerging from dead trees, logs, and stumps. We'll be so busy foraging, the 4 hours will be gone before you know it!