Darien Nature Center
Saturday, May 23

With farmlands, fields, a woodland, edge habitats, and cultivated areas, this picturesque nature center is an ideal venue for a series of spring foraging tours. I'll be appearing here as part of the center's annual Down on the Farm Day, so there'll be other events for kids and adults to enjoy.

What kind of plants might we find on these tours? Just about everything edible that comes up in the spring could be there. In sunny areas and along the edges of trails and woodlands, we'll look for tasty violet leaves, piquant greenbriar leaves and shoots, sour curly dock greens, spicy garlic mustard leaves and flowers, and jewelweed, a poison ivy preventative and cure for mosquito bites.

Disturbed habitats should produce pokeweed, a fabulously tasty, highly nutritious potherb that's poisonous if you consume it raw, or dine on the roots, berries, or seeds.

Wet areas could harbor cattails, with shoots tasting like asparagus in season now; various wild mint species; or even wild watercress.

We'll look for sassafras, the original source of root beer, in the woods, along with wintergreen-flavored black birch trees; and spicebush leaves, for making a flavorful anti-fever tea.

Given enough rain beforehand, we could run into some choice spring mushrooms. There may be chicken mushrooms, dryad's saddle, wine-cap stropharias, or even morels.