Monday, August 2, 2010

Who needs the grocery store?

Yesterday, my YES! project took me on an unusual adventure through the wilds of Brooklyn's Prospect Park: foraging! Pacato, our new friend Ali, and I joined a four-hour tour led by the incredibly knowledgeable (and always prepared) Wildman Steve Brill.

The Wildman shows us how to recognize amaranth.

We found all kinds of edible leafy greens, berries, and varieties of cherries, as well as medicinal plants.


Yum, I can't remember what this green bean-tasting plant is called.


We simultaneously discover burdock root . . . and the fact that we forgot to bring a shovel so we couldn't actually take any home.

Turns out I really enjoy foraging. I may make it a hobby. At the very least, I am definitely going on another tour in the fall. When we got home, I made a tincture for skin irritations using jewel weed, some mugwort tea (good for preventing PMS symptoms and creating lucid dreams), and a dinner salad of lamb's quarters (with a spinach flavor), that green bean-tasting plant, and wood sorrel.


Voila! (Turnips—I think?—foraged from our CSA box. And salmon, from the local fish guy.)

What's that you say? You want more of the Wildman?

Oh, all right.
Impromptu jam session, Prospect Park 2010 from Emily Drum on Vimeo.








4 comments:

  1. OMG, you took the practice of "knowing where your food comes from" to a whole new level. You're the shaman!

    Prospect Park is the new co-op!

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  2. You should come forage with me in Tokyo... I'll bet we could find a nice...um...they don't really have plants in Tokyo. But you should come anyway!

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  3. That was one of those things I wished I had done while I was living in Brooklyn. I guess I can try to find out who's doing that kind of thing in Deutschland...

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  4. Pickled burdock root is my favorite food! I've got some pickling as we speak.

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