Forest Park
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Forest Park Trail
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Forest Park's woodlands, cultivated areas, and thickets make it a great place for early summer foraging, and a great place to celebrate Independence Day. The early summer berries are spectacular here. People can't get enough red, white, or pink mulberries, no matter how many branches we shake over a drop cloth. The black raspberries that grace the thickets provide another special treat. And if the weather conditions have been favorable, a sweet cherry tree will provide fruit much tastier than any cherries you can buy. |
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Sweet Cherry Tree Branch
Watercolor pencil illustration by "Wildman" |
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We'll also be finding daylily flowers in bloom. This Asian delicacy, sold in Chinatown as "golden needles," has a sweet, pungent flavor, wonderful in salads and soups, or stuffed. Wild herbs and vegetables abound in partially sunny areas in the woods and in thickets. We'll be hunting for burdock root, greenbrier, sweet cicely, wood sorrel, field garlic, jewelweed, Asiatic dayflower, lady's thumb, mullein, black birch, and sassafras. If it has rained beforehand, we may also find gigantic chicken mushrooms, brittle russulas, prized chanterelles, and misshapen Berkeley's polypores, as well as prized bolete mushrooms. |
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The 4-hour walking tour begins at 11:45 AM, on Independence Day, Friday, July 4, at the stone wall at Union Turnpike and Park Lane, near the Parks Dept.'s Overlook building.
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Call (914) 835-2153 at least 24 hours ahead to reserve a place.
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