New York City Tours by Urban Oyster

I can't say that I have ever been walking in a park in New York City, seen something on the ground, and then thought to myself, "I sure would like to eat that."

That is until I met "Wildman" Steve Brill and went on his urban foraging tour. For an hour and a half, we ranged about Forest Park in Queens, digging in the understory, plucking leafs and twigs, and experiencing the park with a new sense – taste. In addition to sharpening my tongue to the flavors of the forest, the tour opened up my eyes to a whole new way of seeing the woods. Even with the cursory knowledge of edible plants I gleaned from the tour, the forest scene in front of me suddenly popped with delectables; this experience was much like when I started to learn birdsongs, and the meaningless din of tweets became a symphony of identifiable species. I have been an avid birder ever since, and perhaps the Wildman has convinced me to find more of my daily fodder on the forest floor.

Brill has been doing foraging tours for nearly 30 years in parks and woods around the city and the greater New York area. He has run afoul of the authorities a few times, most notably in 1986, when the city's Parks Department ran a sting operation and busted him for picking dandelions and eating them (click on the "My Arrest" link on his webpage for a lengthy list of clippings related to the incident). The city no longer expends so many resources cracking down on weed pickers, but they are still not crazy about foraging – as long as you are discreet and not denuding the forest, no one will arrest you for collecting a few greens for a salad or herbs for tea. If you do go foraging, of course, remember that there are many, many poisonous plants out there, so be careful. When asked if he had ever been poisoned, Brill answered, "Yes. I was raised on junk food."

So, what were some of these urban vegetables we collected, and how did they taste? Our first plant was, of course, the dandelion – an easily identifiable and abundant weed that makes a nice salad (though the leaves become bitter later in the year, much like overripe lettuce that has "bolted"). We also tried a few garlic-related plants, like field garlic (pictured at top), which resembles chives, and garlic mustard, which is in the mustard family, but its leaves taste like garlic and its roots like horseradish. If you are interested in making tea, the twigs of the black birch (tastes like wintergreen) and the common spice bush can be boiled for various medicinal effects – I tried the latter, and honestly, I think I will be sticking to my Lipton tea bags. My big take of the day, though, was a large root of sassafras, which I intend to use in a batch of homemade root beer (more to come on this project).

I discovered this tour thanks to my friends over at the Atlas Obscura. The event was part of Obscura Day, a worldwide celebration this past Saturday of wondrous and curious places. More than 80 different museums, tours, and other institutions from 20 different countries put on special programs for the event, which drew more than 4,000 participants. In addition to the Wildman's program, other Obscura Day events around New York City included a special tour of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (which we have highlighted before), a tour of Brooklyn's Dead Horse Bay, and a visit to the taxidermied wonders of the Vanderbilt Museum on Long Island. The day turned out to be a big success, and thanks to the folks at Atlas Obscura for putting it together.

If you would like to join "Wildman" Steve Brill on one of his outings, check out his website for a calendar of events, an encyclopedia of edible plants, and recipes for cooking them.

For questions or comments about this blog post, please contact andrewg@urbanoyster.com.