and cattail shoots, for this was a wild food tour with "Wildman" Steve Brill.

Steve has been leading foraging tours for 25 years, and has developed a following. On this tour last month, there were some first-timers and some return foragers. Everyone, it seemed, had a different agenda. There were those who were out for a pleasant walk in the woods. Others had paper and pencil in hand, taking down notes on how to identify and use different plants. Others carried bags and baskets, intent on harvesting as much as they could. They were not disappointed.

"We will search for wild edible and medicinal plants," Steve said at the beginning of the tour. Right near the parking lot were the first finds: wood sorrel, which has a lemony flavor and is good in salads and soups, and the common plantain, which looks like a broad leaf of grass, identified by its parallel veins. The mashed up leaves will alleviate mosquito bites and a poison ivy rash, Steve said. Also good for poison ivy is the juice extracted from the stem of the jewelweed, which often grows near the offending vine, since both like the same habitat.

A short way down the path, everyone stopped to chew on the twigs of a black birch. A green layer just under the bark had a wintergreen flavor, and the twigs can be used for a tea that is said to be good for arthritis and heart problems. It dilates the blood vessels like aspirin, but won't upset your stomach.

As if to prove that not all is benign in the woods, we shortly came across some [poison] hemlock, the very same species that did in Socrates. Later, we also came upon false hellebore, also lethal.

Some of us came home with poor man's pepper; its tiny green leaves having a distinctively spicy bite to them. On the opposite end of the taste scale is red clover; those little pinkish-red flowers you see everywhere. The flowers are edible as is or you can make a tea from them. I thought they tasted rather sweet, and would make a colorful addition to a green salad.

We moved on to some more substantial plants, including burdock. Burdock, Steve explained, lives for two years. In its first year the roots are edible and can be treated like potatoes. With a second year plant, you want to focus on the flowerless stalk. First you strip the stalk of leaves and skin, then boil the remainder for one minute to eliminate bitterness. It then tastes like artichokes.

Around the lake were some cattails, which are edible during several seasons. In the spring, say from mid-May to mid-June, you can eat the interior of the shoots, which have a mild taste like cucumbers. A little later, when the green flower stalks grow up, you can cook and eat them like corn on the cob. When the flower head matures it is yellow. You can then shake off the pollen and sprinkle it on salad.

The sassafras tree is abundant in these parts, and if you find a small sapling, you can pull it up and use the roots for tea. Add sugar and club soda, and you've got root beer.

The highlight of the tour was the discovery of ramps, and I don't mean entrance and exit ramps. A ramp, also known as a wild leek, is a member of the onion family. Ramps grow in damp, shady woods. The clusters we found were hidden among great stands of skunk cabbage. You only need to dig down a few inches to retrieve snow-white bulbs that have a very strong, but very fresh onion flavor. Use them as you would any onion, either raw or sautéed in butter or olive oil. The only problem, Steve warned, is they will give you "death breath."

Steve's walks are informal, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions. Lots of people picked things they thought they recognized and asked him for verification. "You must identify everything with 100% certainty," he said. Reliable field guides are a must, if you plan to do this on your own. And, as he pointed out several times, sometimes a plant is edible, but it's just not worth eating either because it tastes bad or has a poor texture.

More information, including pictures and recipes, can be found at Steve's Web site, wildmanstevebrill.com. You can also call 914-835-2153 or E-mail wildman@wildmanstevebrill.com. He has written two books, both of which he offers for sale at his tours, along with T-shirts, magnifying loupes, and a video. Steve asks for a contribution of $10 per adult and $5 per child, although he says no one is turned away for lack of funds.

Upcoming tours in this area include Huntington State Park in Redding on July 31; the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Aug. 20, Sept. 17, and Nov. 5; Bear Mountain Preserve in Danbury on Aug. 21; the Appalachian Trail in Pawling, N.Y., on Aug. 27; a private woodland in Redding on Sept. 25; Tarrywile Park in Danbury on Oct. 16; and Putnam State Park again on Oct. 23.

Children are welcome on the tour, and Steve peppers his talk with lots of corny jokes, such as, "Check for any animal rights activists before pulling out cattails!"

Steve's first book is Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places (William Morrow & Company, 1994).

The first three recipes are from Steve's The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook ($29.95, The Harvard Common Press, 2002). (The last is from his Web site.) They are only a few of the book's 500 recipes that use 150 different edible wild plants. For each plant, Steve describes what it looks like, where to look for it, how to harvest it, and how to prepare it.

In the book's forward, New York City food enthusiast Arthur Schwartz captures the essence of Steve's tours: "It doesn't matter where you live on this planet. Nature is so persistent and varied that any of us can forage for our dinner."