Inwood Hill Park
Sunday, July 18

This is a great time for berries. We'll be harvesting wineberries, blackberries, and elderberries, all different and delicious.

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 it like potatoes!

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 summer 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, and goutweed, all great for salads, sandwiches, and soups.

Wild seeds are in season too. We'll hunt for the spicy seeds of garlic mustard, walnut-flavored seeds of jewelweed (a panacea for skin irritation—it even cures mosquito bites and prevents poison ivy rash), and the fiery seeds of field garlic.