Prospect Park
Saturday, July 19

Prospect Park is a great place for wild foods, and the summer is an especially rich season.

Herbs and greens abound throughout the park. We'll be finding goutweed, poor man's pepper, hedge mustard, purslane, lamb's-quarters, lady's thumb, Asiatic dayflower, wood sorrel, and sheep sorrel, in locations throughout the park.

Moist areas contain jewelweed, a cure for mosquito bites and a preventative for poison ivy. The edges of trails and overgrown areas abound in burdock, the only root vegetable in season from early spring to late fall. Sassafras grows in open woods, and this is the only park with prickly ash trees, used for the lungs in Chinese traditional medicine.

After a lunch break, we'll search for wineberries growing in openings in the woods, and along the edges of paths. These Asian red raspberries are among the best fruits in the world.

And if it has rained beforehand, we may also come across gigantic chicken mushrooms, brittle russulas, and prized bolete mushrooms.