In terms of quantity, quality, and variety, this late winter tour, along the Bronx River, is the best place for early season foraging. Most of our cold-weather plants and many roots will be in season, and we can look for dead, overwintered remnants of last year's foliage to find otherwise hidden edible roots too.

Garlic mustard will certainly be doing well by now. This cold-resistant European invasive has leaves that taste like garlic, and a fiery, horseradish-flavored taproot.

Another mustard, this one available only on this tour, is the pungent-tasting cuckoo flower, so hot it almost explodes in your mouth, somewhat like wasabe. The leaves, if up, will still be tiny, but you don't need much to flavor any dish.

Once you've tasted it, you can't deny that the wild leek or ramp is the world's best-tasting member of the onion/garlic family, and Crestwood is a great place to take a leek. We'll be looking for last year's dead seed stalks, revealing the location of the white, layered bulbs.

Virginia waterleaf tastes like parsley, only better. And if the leaves are up, they cure the bad breath you'll get from eating ramps.

Wild ginger is similar to its unrelated namesake, but more delicately flavored. It's an excellent seasoning, a superb herb tea, and a home remedy for indigestion. We should find some sign of the plants, to locate the underground stems.

Chickweed, which tastes like corn on the cob, also does great in the cold. It's excellent raw, steamed, and in soups.

The sweet-spicy shoots of the daylily will actually be at their peak at this time. They're great in Asian dishes, and grow in tremendous abundance.

If we're lucky, we'll even find gourmet winter mushrooms, rare in the spring. Oyster mushrooms and tree ears could turn up on if it has rained enough beforehand.

You'll have to attend this field walk to believe it.