Inwood Hill Park
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Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foragers to search for wild foods in late spring. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with wild plants.
Most roots are out of season, but burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, is an exception, and it abounds in human-disturbed areas throughout the park. Instead of brewing it as a tea, it's so abundant, you cook the root like a potato. And this is the peak of the short season for the immature flower stalk. Called cardune by Italians, you peel and parboil it, and use it in vegetable dishes like artichoke hearts. |
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Cardune Peel and parboil the rod-shaped flower stalk in the center of second-year burdock, and you'll be in for a treat! |
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Sassafras root, the original source of root beer, stays in season all you. You use it for tea, for making root beer, and as a cinnamon-like seasoning. Another tree we'll look for is the black birch. It grows in the woods, has twigs that taste like wintergreen, and provides the raw material for birch beer. You can steep the twigs in hot water to make a fabulous tea, with anti-inflammatory properties similar to aspirin. Or thicken the tea with agar, season and sweeten it, and make black birch Jello! There are plenty of late spring herbs and greens in season. We'll find mugwort and motherwort, both tonics for the female reproductive system. Since I've learned these herbs, I've never suffered a monthly cramp! We'll also be finding Asiatic dayflower, lady's thumb, lamb's-quarters, and goutweed, all great for salads, sandwiches, and soups. We'll hunt for the flowers and tops of garlic mustard, which taste like garlic, and jewelweed, a panacea for skin irritations that cures mosquito bites and prevents poison ivy rash. With lots of rain and a bit of luck, gourmet spring mushrooms, such as oyster mushrooms, chicken mushrooms, fairy ring miushrooms, and wine-cap stropharias may be emerging. Don't miss a fantastic tour of this vastly under appreciated park. |
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The 4-hour walking tour begins at 11:45 AM, Saturday, June 5, at the playground at Dykeman St. and Broadway, which is not in Inwood Hill Park.
Call (914) 835-2153 at least 24 hours in advance to reserve a place. |
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Listen to "Wildman's" radio interview with the world's leading expert on Inwood Hill Park, the late Botany Bill Greiner.
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