Sheldrake Lake (Kids 12 & Under)

The 17-year-old foraging expert had been co-leading tours with her dad, "Wildman" Steve Brill, since she was 9. "I'm glad to be rid of her," exclaimed her grumpy father. "She finds all the plants and mushrooms faster than I do, she bosses me around, and she steals all my jokes!"

Sheldrake Lake is great for early spring foraging. Right out of the parking lot, the group will collect garlic mustard, a nutritious, tasty, invasive, garlicky green with a root that tastes like horseradish. The leaves are great in salads, but they also make an outstanding pesto. You can even coat them with herbs and roast them like kale-like chips.

Other tasty greens growing along the trails, and as "weeds" in cultivated areas, include dandelions, hairy bittercress, winter cress, curly dock, bitter dock, field garlic, violets, and chickweed.

All the wild root vegetables are in season now, and they're doing great at Sheldrake. Violet will show everyone sweet, peppery, and radishy common evening primrose, which has the additional benefit of thickening soups and stews.

Wild carrots, more chewy than the commercial subspecies, thrive here too, and their superior flavor and texture make them ideal in carrot soups, stews, cookies, breads, and cakes.

Burdock is an invasive Eurasian plant with a large taproot. You can use it for soups or stews, pickle it, or marinate and bake it to make "Wildman's" Vegan Beef Jerky.

Vegan Beef Jerky

Marinated with standard jerky ingredients and baked, the flavor and texture of this dish are perfect.

There's even a possibility of wild mushrooms on this tour. Oyster mushrooms, tree ear mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms have appeared in this park in early spring in the past.

Tree Ear Mushroom

Traditionally used for texture in soups, coated with herbs and baked (the mushroom, not the ear!), you get a treat with the texture of Gummy Bears, plus the flavors of whichever seasonings you've chosen.

Please Note:

• Participants should be dressed for the weather, and be aware of very bad subway service. Trains are often canceled due to track work.
• No sandals (there are mosquitoes, thorns and poison ivy). Everyone should have plastic bags for veggies and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, which spoil in
• Plastic, containers for berries from late spring through fall, water and lunch, and extra layers when it's cold. Digging implements and pocket knives are optional.
• Please bring plastic bags for vegetables and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, drinking water, and a pen (to sign in).
• Dogs are permitted. Children are encouraged to attend.
• There's no smoking whatsoever at any time.