Inwood Hill Park is distinguished as one of the finest urban foraging destinations during the late winter months. The park's rolling topography creates a landscape of dense mature forest, open meadows, thick thickets, and cultivated sections, all teeming with edible wild plants even during the colder season.
Root Vegetables and Underground Harvests:
Winter represents the optimal season for seeking root vegetables. Burdock, marketed in health food stores for its detoxifying properties and valued despite its invasive, non-native origins, flourishes in disturbed areas throughout the park. The cooked root delivers a flavor reminiscent of potatoes blended with artichoke hearts.
Sassafras taproots from the highly abundant saplings provide the traditional base for root beer, delivering a flavor profile that echoes the classic beverage. Black birch trees, the source of birch beer, offer twigs with a distinctive wintergreen taste. These twigs can be chewed fresh, steeped into a nourishing herbal tea with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory properties, or incorporated as a flavoring element in traditional preparations like tapioca-thickened stick pudding.
Along the park's pathways, foragers will discover hog peanut tubers with flavor notes comparable to raw peanuts. Peppery-sweet evening primrose roots flourish along certain pathways; their sweet and peppery character makes them exceptional in soups and stews, where they also provide a natural thickening effect. While health food stores sell prostaglandin-rich oils pressed from evening primrose seeds for managing PMS and related ailments, the fresh root offers a more direct application.
Shoots, Stems, and Leafy Greens:
The winter season offers abundant shoots and leafy greens for harvesting. Expect to find chickweed with its corn-like taste; hot-sweet daylily shoots; pungent-flavored pepper sedum; spicy garlic mustard with both edible leaves and roots; lemony-tasting curly dock; and savory field garlic throughout the park.
Goutweed stems are traditionally harvested and pickled by Asian communities foraging in this location. The leaves carry combined flavors reminiscent of parsley, carrots, and celery, making them excellent additions to soups, salads, and guacamole. When used as a seasoning comparable to fresh parsley, they provide outstanding flavor contributions.
Participant Guidelines:
- Dress appropriately for current weather conditions and prepare for potentially unreliable subway service; trains are frequently delayed or canceled due to ongoing track maintenance work.
- Refrain from wearing sandals given the presence of mosquitoes, thorns, and poison ivy in park areas.
- Bring plastic bags for vegetables and herbs, along with paper bags specifically for mushrooms (which spoil if stored in plastic).
- Pack containers for collecting berries during late spring through fall seasons; bring adequate drinking water, lunch provisions, and extra clothing layers for cold-weather protection.
- Digging implements and pocket knives are optional items that may enhance your foraging experience.
- Canine companions are welcome to participate, and children are strongly encouraged to attend.
- Smoking is absolutely prohibited during the entire tour duration.
