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Community Corner

Foraging Prospect Park

Green Edge NYC's summer foraging tours aim to bring out the inner gatherer in all of us.

On a recent, rainy Saturday morning, a group of about 10 people decked in rain boots met under a small gazebo in Grand Army Plaza. They were braving the soggy weather in the name of fresh greens, but browsing the nearby, tarp-covered farmers market was of no interest to them. Instead, with wild edible and medicinal plant expert Leda Meredith as their guide, they planned to forage for the stuff themselves.

“Before we head off, I ask that you please don’t eat anything on the trail today without checking with me first,” Meredith said to an audience of windbreakers. She concluded her intro, encouraging the use of camera phones, then motioned for the group to follow her into the park.

This was the first in a series of seasonal guided foraging trips through Prospect Park led by Meredith, a certified ethno-botanist and author of The Locavore's Handbook: The Busy Person's Guide to Eating Local on a Budget. The tours are promoted by eco-friendly event organizer Green Edge NYC and cost $20 per session. They offer a crash course on how to find edible food in the park, including the names and identifiable characteristics of plants, when to look for what, how much to take, and what to do with a plant once you’ve foraged it.

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Meredith’s tours are popular both among hardcore foodies looking to expand their palates and local chefs. A while back, Justin Phillips of Beer Table came along on a tour. After learning that mugwart could be used to flavor beer like hops, he made a big batch at his restaurant. (“It was really good,” Meredith said). This time around Tom Kearney, the chef of Ditmas Park farm-to-table restaurant The Farm On Adderly, tagged along, camera in tow.

 As the group walked deeper into the park, Meredith veered off to the side of the path to pick a leaf of what appeared to be a small, green weed.

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“What have I got?” she asked the group, holding the leaf for all to see. “Dandelion.”

 All parts of a dandelion are useful, according to Meredith. The root can be used as a digestive, but it’s also a strong diuretic that doesn’t deplete your body of potassium.

“It’s also very tasty,” she said, passing around her sample to the tour group. “You can chop it up and roast it. 300 degree oven. Or grind it up and brew it just like it was coffee. No caffeine but very, very tasty and it will make your whole house smell like molassas. If I had one plant that I would have to rely on, it would probably be these.”

Other finds on the tour included plantains, good for bug bites (“Think of it like a little field Band-Aid.”), magnolia buds, violets (a cute salad garnish), burdock (“It’s ruffled, like a girl’s skirt”), yellow dock, bishop’s elder, elderberry, mugwart, chickweed, and echinacea (a good cold preventative). Tour member Michele Lunt, of Astoria, Queens, also brought a shovel along and dug up a patch of field garlic, an ingredient Meredith used in the homemade pesto she later serve the tour group.

As a child Meredith was taught to forage by her Greek grandmother and mother. She emphasizes that the key to foraging efficiently is recognizing what’s in season when.

“If we were our own little tribe we would not just wander off into the woods of the park and hope that we found some food,” Meredith said near some unripe elderberry trees. “You would have a very detailed calendar and map in your mind.”

As Meredith spoke, tour member Kenneth King avidly wrote notes.

“I just love foraging,” he said. “I grew up in the city, and I’ve been on a quest over the last few years to become more of a naturalist.

But in New York City?

“It’s where I grew up,” he said.  “It’s my habitat.”

To learn more about Meredith's foraging trips or sign up for a tour, visit Green Edge NYC's website.

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