Marine Park,
Sunday, March 9

This vastly under appreciated park offers all the best wild foods of the rich seashore habitat. The sandy soil is poor, limiting tree growth but benefiting plants that can take advantage of the full sunlight and nutrient-poor soil. Many of these species get a head start in late winter and early spring.

The fields of south of Ave. U provide such early spring shoot and greens such as curly dock (no relation to Moe Dock or Larry Dock — Nyuck! Nyuck! Nyuck!), garlic mustard, field garlic, daylily shoots, and winter cress. We also find plenty of the medicinal plant, mullein, and the season's first pineapple-weed, a pineapple-scented relative of chamomile.

The sun and sand makes this one of the best habitats for root vegetables. We'll be finding stands of sweet wild parsnips and peppery common evening primrose roots, as well as highly flavored white-colored wild carrots (Queen Anne's Lace).

And we'll even see the showy, fragrant blossoms of the rare wild apricot trees, with a hint of things to come.