Topstone Park
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This rugged, hilly park in Redding, CT, is great for late summer foraging. "Wildman" has explored this park before, but this is his second public tour there, in conjunction with the Redding Recreation Dept.
This is a superb habitat for great quantities of gourmet wild mushrooms, easy to understand because "Wildman" will go over the identifying characteristics of the major groups of mushrooms we'll be finding. Then it's easy to single out species that belong to the larger groups by their specific characteristics. We'll be looking for 3 members of the chanterelle group, each easy to identify: the chanterelle, the cinnabar red chanterelle, and the black trumpet. |
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This distinctive mushroom, which grows in mossy soil in late summer and fall, has a rich, smoky flavor that makes it one of the world's tastiest foods. |
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There are lots of boletes, some of which are choice edibles, some bad-tasting, and some, which have red undersides and bruise blue immediately, which cause gastrointestinal distress, but are easy to avoid. Polypores, shelf-shaped inhabitants of wood with pores (holes) on their undersides, and no poisonous members, include delicious chicken mushrooms and black-staining polypores. Possible mushroom finds are limited by only 1 factor: rain. If there have been days of torrential rain beforehand, we'll do great. If there's a drought, we'll look for other edibles. Woodland trails will feature herbs and greens such as root beer-flavored sassafras, wintergreen-flavored black birch, garlicky ramp bulbs, and spicy garlic mustard seeds. In open, sunny open places, we'll find "weeds" such as lamb's quarters, which tastes like spinach; sweet, sour, and chewy purslane; spicy poor man's pepper and field pennycress; mullein, an herb tea for coughs; and flavorful milkweed pods, wonderful green after you cook out the bitter, milky sap. Wild fruits also abound at this time of year. We'll be harvesting bittersweet black cherries, tasty elderberries, and wonderfully delicious wild blackberries. |
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The 2-hour walking tour of Topstone Park begins at 10 AM, Sunday, August 17, at 72 Topstone Rd. in Redding, CT.
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Call (914) 835-2153 at least 24 hours ahead to reserve a place.
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