Alley Pond Park, one of New York City's largest and most ecologically rich wetland parks, offers remarkable foraging potential even as the season edges toward winter. The tour moves through a variety of habitats, each with its own edible and medicinal offerings, providing a diverse and educational experience for foragers at every level.
The group begins in a young woodland that contains generous stands of field garlic, whose leaves taste like chives and whose bulbs have the pungent character of onion or garlic, alongside garlic mustard, a bold mustard green with a taproot that carries the flavor of horseradish. Sassafras grows nearby, offering a root that can be brewed for tea, used as a sweet seasoning, or incorporated into homemade root beer.
Circumnavigating Oakland Lake, the group will encounter sour curly yellow dock, bitter-savory dandelion greens, mild corn-flavored chickweed, and black birch trees with their distinctive wintergreen aroma. A small stream nearby hosts naturalized watercress alongside wild winter cress, both members of the mustard family, each with their own sharp, lively flavor. Other peppery relatives such as hairy bittercress and poor man's pepper may also make an appearance.
After a break for lunch, the tour moves into the marsh, where burdock root, normally difficult to extract, yields easily from the soft, composted wetland soil. Sweet wild parsnips, excellent in soups and stews, grow nearby, tucked in among the surrounding vegetation. The group will also find white-colored wild carrots, additional wild parsnips, and impressively large common evening primrose roots with their peppery-sweet flavor.
With favorable weather and sufficient rainfall beforehand, the group may encounter gourmet mushrooms, including oyster mushrooms, fried chicken mushrooms, brick tops, and enoki, emerging from trees, stumps, or wood chips throughout the park.
The 4-hour foraging tour of Alley Pond Park begins at 11:45 AM at the southeast corner of Springfield and Northern Boulevards in Douglaston, Queens.
Notes:
- Participants should be dressed for the weather and should note that subway service in this area can be unreliable. Trains are often rerouted or cancelled due to track work.
- Sandals are not appropriate due to mosquitoes, thorns, and poison ivy. Bring plastic bags for vegetables and herbs, paper bags for mushrooms, containers for berries from late spring through fall, water, lunch, and extra layers when it is cold.
- Digging implements and pocket knives are optional.
- Dogs are welcome. Children are warmly encouraged to attend.
- Smoking is not permitted at any time during the tour.
