Foraging
Currently this is a passive interest that I have no acted on in any significant way.
Small things I've done that come to mind
- Some years my parents make maple syrup from the maple trees in our backyard/woods
- Our yard has had wild asparagus and raspberries before. I'm not sure if we ever tried the asparagus, but definitely the raspberries.
- Recently (February 2026) in southeast Florida I was with my parents and we tasted some fruit that had fallen from a tree (retrospectively perhaps we should have more carefully identified it first. We only had a small nibble.)
- In Arizona (September 2025) my family took some prickly pear fruit from a cactus while on a hike and we tried some of it (took it home and washed it first).
- Tasting a random pine needle in Montana (during Glacier National Park trip by a lake).
- Luxuriating in the caramel scent of the Ponderosa Pine (No I don't think smelling really counts as foraging, but it counts as appreciating a plant)
The most important principle of foraging
“Use only those wild foods that you've identified with 100 percent certainty.” ~ Steve Brill, The Wild Vegan Cookbook
Urban foraging
Apparently Central Park has edible plants that can be foraged. Video by Robin Greenfield of a CP foraging tour. I'd like to try this out sometime --
- Video recommends Sam Thayer's books (The Forager's Harvest, Nature's Garden, Incredible Wild Edibles) for actually learning how to identify and prepare specific plants.
Update: I joined a foraging tour in Central Park: 6-6-2026 Foraging tour with Wildman Steve Brill.
I'm starting to feel a sense that urban foraging is part of an antidote to a negative feeling I sometimes get about living in NYC from an environmentalist perspective. It's not exactly the place to be to be immersed in nature. And yet, there are edible plants hiding just below the surface. It's a whole world beneath the surface of normal perception, a way to cultivate a connection with nature even in an urban setting.
Another opportunity: The New York Mycological Society does walks for identifying+foraging mushrooms. Could be interesting to join.
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