INWOOD — As the weather grows cooler and Manhattan’s wildlife squirrels away nuts and seeds for the winter months, “Wildman” Steve Brill, a connoisseur of edible delights in city parks, plans to teach city dwellers how to find delectable treats in city parks.
Brill will lead a group of foodies through the thickets and wild forest of Inwood Hill Park, Manhattan’s only natural forest, where they can spot roots like Burdock, a medicinal herb sold in many health food stores, and kinpira gobo, used prominently in a Japanese soup.
“Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foraging in late fall,” according to Brill, whose popular foraging trips fill up quickly. “The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with wild plants, even after the heavy frosts typical of the day after Thanksgiving.”
Brill will also show foragers how to identify Sassafras, birch tree root, corn-flavored chickweed, parsley-flavored goutweed, bitter-savory dandelion greens, pungent garlic mustard and savory gingko nuts, forest finds he promises will delight the palate.
Brill leads similar tours throughout the year in the five boroughs, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Although he has led tours of this kind for years, foraging in city parks is officially forbidden. The Central Park Conservancy prominently displays an article titled "How Foraging Damages Park Landscapes" on its website.
But Brill said he has a working relationship with Parks officials since the 1980s and takes care to teach nature lovers how to explore the park without harming it.
“Most of the park officials I run into seem to understand that what I’m doing is not destructive,” Brill said earlier this year while emphasizing the "need to forage intelligently" by limiting oneself to safe and renewable plants.
The four-hour walking tour begins at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Anne Loftus Playground on the corner of Dyckman Street and Broadway.
A donation of $20 for adults and $10 for children under 12 years old is suggested. Call 914-835-2153 at least 24 hours in advance to reserve a spot.
