Inwood Hill Park
Saturday, March 22

Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foragers in early spring. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with wild plants.

Now is the time for roots: Burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, abounds in human-disturbed areas throughout the park. The cooked root tastes like a combination of potatoes and artichokes.

Sassafras, on the other hand, tastes like root beer, which you make from the taproots of the abundant saplings. And the black birch tree, of birch beer fame, tastes like wintergreen. The twigs, which you can chew, make a delicious non-steroidal anti-inflammatory herb tea.

Another root we'll look for along the park's paths is the tuber of the hog peanut, with a flavor akin to raw peanuts.

And there are still more roots to seek: At the park's summit, an overgrown field conceals wild carrots, a tastier white version of the familiar garden vegetable. Peppery-sweet common evening primrose roots grow nearby. You can purchase a prostaglandin-rich oil pressed from the seeds in health food stores for PMS and other ailments. The root is outstanding in soup and stew.

Everyone will also find plenty of leafy green vegetables, such as chickweed, which tastes like corn, hot-sweet daylily shoots, parsley-flavored goutweed, hot-tasting pepper sedum, pungent garlic mustard, roots with their garlicky leaves, and spicy field garlic.