This park is one of the best places for early summer foraging. It boasts a large, mature, secondary growth forest, trail edges, thickets, and cultivated areas--all overflowing with wild plants. Sassafras grows in open places in the woods, on hillsides, and in edge habitats. It tastes like root beer, which you can make from the taproots. You can also use it for brewing a delicious, detoxifying tea, or as a cinnamon-like seasoning. You'll also find honewort, an herb with a flavor similar to parsley, celery, and carrots, that will turn any savory dish into something special. The black birch tree, of birch beer fame, is a common forest species that tastes like wintergreen. The twigs, which you can chew, make a delicious non-steroidal anti-inflammatory herb tea, reducing the chance of heart attacks, and you can thicken, season, and sweeten the tea to make black birch Jello. With lots of rain and a bit of luck, gourmet chicken mushrooms, black-staining polypores, and hygrophorus milky mushrooms could be popping up throughout the woods. The tour will last for about 4 hours.
New York City, NY; NYC