kidchamp dot net

05.11.09

at half past eleven on mother's day i was perched on a bench at the edge of central park, trying to figure out which of the people streaming past me were urban foragers. as it turns out, they're pretty easy to spot.



this is wildman steve brill, a self-taught urban forager who leads would-be weed-feasters through parks in and around new york city. amanda and i followed him around yesterday afternoon, dutifully bagging, labeling, and munching as he directed. (full disclosure: amanda did all of the labeling. she's a natural.) we were both terribly excited about the prospect of finding mushrooms (who wouldn't be, after the rain we had last week and the precedent wabes and her family set in illinois?); happily, our timing was just right for a couple of spectacular dryad's saddles, dramatic numbers that crop up on dead wood. most of the 'shrooms we spotted were the sort that kill you softly, alas, but we found plenty of luscious, wonkaesque greens (a bed of honewort that tasted like parsley and celery! diminutive tufts of sheep sorrel that tasted like lemonade!), and i think we both have enough roots and herbs to bolster our reproductive systems (everything was either fertility-enhancing, cancer-pummeling, or both, it seemed) for good.



i also have a big chunk of cattail; it wasn't especially delicious (like gloomy cucumber), but as amanda noted, it was great fun to watch unsuspecting sunbathers watch us descend on the edge of a pond and begin eating the greenery. urban hippies in the wild! s'okay, they're mostly vegetarian.