At 12:30 PM, Saturday, September 1, beginning at the parking lot by the bathhouse, America's go-to guy for foraging, "Wildman" Steve Brill, will lead one of his world-famous foraging tours of Sunken Meadow Park in
Kings Park, NY. The seashore is always a special place for edible wild plants, and the fall is no exception.
The most spectacular find in this park grows within sight of the ocean. Dozens of bushes in nearby thickets provide thousands of exquisitely delicious beach plums. Smaller than their commercial counterparts, these plums taste so much better that anyone who tries them will never shop for plums again.
There will also be edible seaweeds in the sound. Irish moss, which is used as a commercial thickener in cosmetics and
ice cream, also makes great puddings. Rockweed is great in soups baked, or in mock
seafood dishes; and diaphanous green sea lettuce is superb sautéed with garlic. Everyone who tastes it loves sea rocket, a spicy, succulent mustard green that grows only in the sand. At this time of year it tastes like its relative, wasabe.
Other great wild foods grow away from the sand. Pounds of Asian chestnuts from forgotten cultivated trees will be dropping onto the picnic tables. Wild fox grapes, common spicebush, and sassafras also abound along the edges of the nearby woods. We may even get the season's last wild blackberries and black cherries.
Herbs and greens such as sheep sorrel, chickweed, Asiatic dayflower, northern bayberry, field garlic, yarrow, and mullein grow also along the edges of trails or in fields, ready for harvesting.
If there has been sufficient rain beforehand, there may also be lots of choice gourmet mushrooms in the woods. We'll look for huge chicken mushrooms, hearty hen of the woods, savory honey mushrooms, delicate gem-studded puffballs, and unbelievably large giant puffballs.
The 3-hour walking tour begins at 12:30 PM, Saturday, September 1, at the parking lot by the Sunken Meadow Park bathhouse.The suggested donation is $20/adult, $10/child under 12. Please call (914) 835-2153 at least 24 hours in advance to reserve a place.
