Inwood Hill Park
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Inwood Hill Park Overlooking the Hudson
"Wildman" totters at the edge of the precipice. |
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Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for foragers in midsummer. The city's hilliest park, with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas, it's loaded with wild plants.
This is a great time for berries. We'll be harvesting wineberries, blackberries, and elderberries, all different and delicious. Most roots are out of season, but burdock, an expensive detoxifying herb sold in health food stores, is an exception, and it abounds in human-disturbed areas throughout the park. So does sassafras root, the original source of root beer. And its root is in season all year. Seeds are in season too. We'll hunt for the spicy seeds of garlic mustard, walnut-flavored seeds of jewelweed (a panacea for skin irritation—it even cures mosquito bites and prevents poison ivy rash), and the fiery seeds of field garlic. |
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Field Garlic Seed Head
The purple seeds are even spicier than the green sprouts |
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The black birch tree, on the other hand, tastes like wintergreen, and provides the raw material for birch beer. With lots of rain and a bit of luck, gourmet oyster mushrooms, chicken mushrooms, chanterelles, boletes, and russulas may be emerging. Don't miss a fantastic tour of this vastly under appreciated park. |
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The 4-hour walking tour begins at 11:45 AM, Sunday, July 20, at the playground at Dykeman St. and Broadway, which is not in Inwood Hill Park.
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Call (914) 835-2153 at least 24 hours in advance to reserve a place.
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Listen to "Wildman's" radio interview with the world's leading expert on Inwood Hill Park, the late Botany Bill Greiner.
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