Long Island Gardening Community Resource

Last Sunday, Jen and I went on a nature walk with the “Wildman” Steve Brill. The premise of his walks is to learn about foraging for edible plants in the wild. He is a quirky man with loads of information about nature and local plants. He made music from his mouth by clapping his hands together in front of his mouth and changing the pitch of the sound with his mouth. He turned each mouth clap into a note and played little songs for the kids, young and old. What a monkey! What a fun guy! or shall I say Fungi? Quite the mushroom connoisseur. There were two kids on the tour that have definitely been on his tours before. As we walked along the trails of the Muttontown Preserve, he would say “heres a good spot for mushrooms , look around” and these two kids would run into the woods searching for mushrooms. It was like a small “Wildman Steve Brill” scout club.

There were a variety ages there, and everyone seemed to enjoy the walk.

Things he identified that were of interest to me include:

- Autumn Olive Berries - This was “the” big hit of the day. Steve pointed them out to us and they were quite plentiful in this area at this time of year. So many people were collecting them and eating them all day. What was funny to me is that I realized I had seen those berries for years and years while hiking in the trails and had no idea they were edible. So a few days later, I called up my buddy Jon and told him to come meet me to collect some berries and we filled up bags and bags of them. They are now sitting in my fridge and I have yet to decide what to do with them. Im thinking about making wine, or preserves, or some kind or sauce for Thanksgiving, or just freeze them. I will post the recipes, whatever I wind up doing with them.

- Sassafrass - I knew about using the root to make root beer, but he told us how, and its on his website here.

- Sheep Sorrell - Tasty Wild Field Green

- Crab Apples - Never knew about these. You can eat them. They are a bit tart, but the soft ripe ones are kind of sweet. But theres a fine line between ripe and bad.

- Spice Bush - Used to make Tea

- Bay - Huge Bay Leaf Shrubs - Ill never buy them in the store now.

- Jewel Weed - I learned to rub it on you if you have been bitten or stung by any insect (such as bees, mosquitos, etc) and it takes the pain away. You can recognize it by the way water shapes and shines like a jewel when it lands on the plant.

-Garlic Mustard - Learned to identify the seed pods and eat the seeds. mmm…mustard.

-Poor Mans Pepper - Tastes like pepper, I think it tastes like Arugula a little, like the Arugula flowers

- Privot - Poison Privot

I will certainly be on more of his tours now. You can find his schedule on his website. He asks for a donation of $12 per person and sells books and dvds as well. I bought his book “Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places.”

The one thing I took away from the lessons is never to eat something unless you are 100% sure you can identify it.

I will add to this posting a bit more solid information and links and photos on the plants we identified. Check back.