Prospect Park
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Prospect Park provides such a superabundance of wild foods as mid-spring approaches, it's hard to cover them all in just 4 hours.
We begin with spicy hedge mustard, corn-flavored chickweed, and pungent poor man's pepper, growing near the park's Grand Army Plaza entrance. Then we move to goutweed, growing near the Vale of Cashmere (and throughout the park). This herb tastes like parsley, celery, and carrots. Nearby we'll munch on sweet-sour redbud flowers and check out the asparagus-flavored Hercules' club trees that grow next to sour-flavored Japanese knotweed shoots. |
 Hercules' Club Shoot Peel the thorns and cook the shoots' undeveloped stems and leaves like asparagus, to create a highly tasty vegetable dish available only in the wild. |
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Later on, we'll find sweet parsnips growing next to the skating rink. Then we'll circle the lake for sour-flavored curly dock, and mount a ridge and hunt for hot field peppergrass. Finally, we'll circle back to Grand Army Plaza, stopping for daylily shoots, poor man's pepper, common blue violets, and the roots of burdock, wild carrots, and common evening primrose. When you've experienced the bonanza of renewable resources nature bestows on you this day, you'll know what spring really means. |
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The 3-hour walking tour begins at 1 PM, Saturday, April 17, at Prospect Park's Grand Army Plaza entrance.
Call (914) 835-2153 at least 24 hours ahead to reserve a place. |
