Foraging: Out To Eat . . . in Your Local Park

Foraging in parks is an opportunity to eat very local. Working with guides and reference books, foragers learn to identify edible plant and mushrooms growing in the wild. We're wondering if you have been on foraging trips or are making plans to go this summer?

A recent episode of Gourmet Magazine's Diary of a Foodie focused on "Living Off the Land" and has more cooks curious about where the wild food is. Foraging Guide Richard Wiese told Gourmet: "It's just fun to know how to identify plants and have the knowledge that food doesn't have to come from a supermarket."

These photo tours of past foraging trips have us looking forward to a walk in the park with a foraging guide.

Here in the New York City area, "Wildman" Steve Brill (seen in this picture) will lead weekly foraging walks in parks. Foraging.com lists foraging outings in other parts of the country, including Massachusetts and Tennessee.
(photo: Ranjit)

Comments (4)

Eating random food from parks is something I've never considered. The closest I've come to eating wild food would be the blackberries, muscadine grapes, and pecans that can be found all over East Texas. Collecting berries and making cobbler used to be a summer event.

And wild onion grows in abundance too...but it's not something I've ever deliberately picked and eaten.

I went on one of Brill's tours, and learned alot. There is burdock root ALL OVER Prospect Park. I did not choose to eat unwashed chickweed from around the tree pits, because I take my dog to the park every day and . . . you know.
But bring a bag, take home a salad.

We found gorgeous a maitake mushroom last fall, which transformed into gorgeous mushroom pasta. I ate a mushroom we picked off a tree by the picnic house, and live to tell the tale.

Two caveats:
his shtick is PAINFUL tasteless Borscht-belt stuff
his cute toddler might be along for the ride, and she demands aLOT of attention from daddy. It gets in the way of the tour, and it's harrowing to be around a small barely-supervised child when the order of the day is sticking plants in your mouth and learning what is safe and what is not.
zoinks!

There's a hilariously snarky account of one of Brill's tours in David Rakoff's book "Don't Get Too Comfortable." Kind of put me off the whole concept...

That said, I have great childhood memories of picking blueberries just outside Acadia Park in Maine, and hunting for blackberries and apples in VT, so maybe I need to broaden my horizons!

I went on many tours with Wildman in days gone by. They were always remarkable experiences, full of surprise and even delight. But I'm astonished to learn that he has procreated! There really is a lid for every pot...