Cunningham Park (Kids 12 & Under)

This underappreciated urban park has enough habitat variety and plant species to keep foragers busy for days. We'll highlight those species in season as summer fades into fall, in conjunction with The Down to Earth Farmer's Market. The event begins with a wild demo at the market, before we set off into the woods, thickets, and fields that make up the park.

The park is a great place for wild fruit, and plenty of species are ripe at this time. Yew bushes, with sweet, gelatinous berries (and poisonous seeds, which you spit out!) grow in cultivated areas. And an abandoned apple orchard will be dropping pounds of apples of many varieties onto the ground.

If this has been a rainy summer, the mushrooming should be excellent. Some of the species the group will look for include gourmet boletes, brittle russulas, savory honey mushrooms, and gigantic chicken mushrooms.

Wild greens also thrive in meadows and along trail edges. Weีll look for sour sheep sorrel and wood sorrel, spicy poor-manีs-pepper, mild-flavored lady's thumb, and string bean-flavored Asiatic dayflower. There will be culinary and medicinal herbs such as sassafras, as well as common spicebush leaves and berries.

With fall just around the corner, root vegetables are coming in to season. We'll look for the bulbs of wild leeks (ramps), the premier member of the onion family, which are rampant in the woods. Although the leaves are long-gone, the skeletons of the seed stalks will reveal the location of the bulbs. We'll also find sweet cicely root, which tastes like anise, in the woods, and search for wild carrots (Queen Anne's lace) near the maintenance area. The edge of the woods near the playground North of 73rd Ave. should also be loaded with large, sweet, tasty wild parsnips.

Note:

• Participants should be dressed for the weather, and be aware of very bad subway service. Trains are often canceled due to track work. 
• No sandals (there are mosquitoes, thorns and poison ivy). Everyone should have plastic bags for veggies and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, which spoil in plastic, containers for berries from late spring through fall, water and lunch, and extra layers when it's cold. Digging implements and pocket knives are optional. 
• Dogs are permitted. Children are encouraged to attend.
• There's no smoking whatsoever at any time.