Steve Brill was late. Not toolate, just a little bit. But people were getting worried that he wouldn't show up. Mr. Brill, or "Wildman" Steve Brill, as he prefers to be called, was due at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Hiram Halle Memorial Library to speak as part of the Morgenthau Environmental Lecture Series, cosponsored by the Morgenthau Preserve and the library.

The audience was getting itchy, but not in a poison ivy kind of way. The people who came to hear Mr. Brill wanted to learn all about his personal area of expertise—foraging for food in the wild—not a topic of interest to most folks in our Burger King/Taco Bell-infested world. But these people were excited; everyone was hoping he would arrive soon. Then, all of a sudden, there was Mr. Brill—carrying a couple of large bunches of dried-out plant material and a number of brown paper bags. He threw the branches down on a table at the front of the library's Schaffner Room and proceeded to start dumping assorted stuff, primarily leaves and mushrooms, out of the bags. Everybody was happy.

Mr. Brill, wearing his signature outfit pith helmet, shirt and long pants with socks hiked up high launched right in to his talk, passing around some long stalks that came from a garlic mustard plant.

"Because the plant is dying it has to make seeds. Hold out your hands," he implored the crowd. "But be careful not to let the seeds fall on the floor, especially if you're a good Catholic—you're not supposed the spill your seed."

There was a momentary pause, then people groaned. Not only is Mr. Brill wild, but he'd like to think he's a comedian.

It turned out that garlic mustard seeds taste pretty darned good, and before long even the most suspicious fast-food fanatics in the crowd were chowing down on all kinds of ecological edibles they wouldn't have dared touch under ordinary circumstances.

"Any comments on the flavor?" Mr. Brill, a vegetarian, said of the garlic mustard, which had a decidedly different taste. "They're strong, sharp. Sprinkle them on anything that tastes mild."

He recommended grinding the seeds up before mixing in some vinegar or lemon juice, some herbs perhaps, along with tofu. He talked for a while about the nutritive value of the plant, which in its earlier, fresher stages has leaves that are also tasty. Garlic mustard is a member of the same plant family as broccoli, known for its anti-oxidant, anti-cancer qualities, he said. Mr. Brill knows what he's talking about. Not only has he been conducting wild food and ecology tours in New York City since 1982, but he's also given countless classroom visits, nature walks and the like for children; has been at the helm of numerous private tours and workshops; led culinary wild food tours for none other than the Culinary Institute of America; and has provided teachers' training for Outward Bound. His resume is about a mile long and as varied as they come.

He's hosted radio and television shows ("Foraging With the Wildman," "The Nature Nuts"), is a published author ("The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook," "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild and Not-So-Wild Places," and "Shoots and Greens of Early Spring"), has had art exhibitions of his botanical illustrations and models of wild mushrooms, and is an amateur "Brillophone" player.

He even says he was the basis for a TV character—Seinfeld's cousin Jerry, a fictional parks department forager. And in a true-life incident that sounds like something straight out of "Seinfeld," Mr. Brill gained no small amount of notoriety for being arrested in Central Park a few years back. The crime: picking a dandelion. His Web site, www.wildmanstevebrill.com, which he referred to about every three minutes on Saturday, even has a copy of the fingerprint sheet taken at the police station.

Luckily there were no officers along for the walk on Saturday, so everything was under control in Pound Ridge. After speaking to the audience at the library for about an hour, primarily on wild mushrooms but also on jewelweed (a natural anti-inflammatory that includes the same

agent active in Preparation H), sheep sorrel—"great in salads" and black birch twigs (they taste like wintergreen), Mr. Brill led the group on a walking tour in the Morgenthau Preserve.

The preserve, off Pound Ridge Road (Route 172) roughly opposite Tatomuck Road, has well marked trails and is open to the public under the auspices of the Nature Conservancy.