nothin Wild! Say Hello To Dinner | New Haven Independent

Wild! Say Hello To Dinner

Craig Gilbert Photos

Steve Wildman” Brill pointed to a patch of wild violets.

It tastes a bit like lettuce,” he proclaimed.

The sold-out posse of diners foraging with him glanced around the woods of East Rock Park. Will everything, we wondered, taste like lettuce?

Wildman” (pictured at top) is the premier urban food forager on the East Coast and possibly the country, a naturalist on a mission with a vegan uncle demeanor and a borscht belt full of eye-rolling quips.

The Institute Library brought him to town Tuesday night to lead 30-plus weed-seekers along the Mill River in an event called Urban Foraging in East Rock Park.”

It ended with an edible dessert. But the main course was aimed at the mind — a new way of looking at where we get our food. As Brill’s journey reveals, that can get dangerous.

Makings Of A Roots Outlaw

The neighborhood grocery store still exists in some parts; natural, close, convenient. But what if that convenience were strengthened, jacked-up to where you never had to start up the Subaru wagon or strap the backpack on before biking out for arugula? What if the produce were almost in your own backyard?

No. Seriously. For real.

Walk out the front door and cross the street into that wooded area over yonder. See all those plants growing there? Many are edible, many are medicinal, and all of them are free.

That’s where the endless Wiki-like knowledge of urban-foraging guru Wildman” Brill benefits anyone with the habit of eating. Leading tours through Central Park and other green-er areas of New York city since 1982, Brill is the go to” guy when it comes to food that’s, well, that’s just growing around.

Urban food foraging” is knowing what native urban plants are edible and then simply harvesting them: your own little, open-air produce store, smack dab in the middle of a city.

I started this whole thing cause I was hungry,” Brill chuckled as he set out with his New Haven foragers Tuesday evening. After reading all the wild-growing food books in the library, I wanted to get healthier and use more wild foods in my recipes.”

Finding many of the wild food books he read dangerously inaccurate, Wildman set out cautiously to test all the wild-growing munchies he could get his mouth on. His wealth of knowledge on edible stuff what grows in your parks” grew. Soon he began leading a series of walking/eating tours through Central Park, informing the New York’s curious eaters about the huge amount of food they had sprouting around their town.

Naturally, this led to his arrest.

Two undercover park rangers infiltrated one of my tours,” Brill says. Then, once I ate a leaf from a dandelion, they called in on their walkie-talkies and I was soon surrounded by New York police officers.”

Pinched in the park, Wildman was patted down, cuffed and sent downtown where he faced a year in the clink for criminal mischief.”

After his release, he spent the next day on the phone calling all the TV stations and newspapers he could. That buzz caused the charges to be dropped — and led to Wildman’s eventual employment by the parks department as an environmental educator.” He could now legally lead tours through the park.

Into The Woods

Wildman, who’s 64, started his East Rock foraging tour with the promise of a salad at the end of the trip. Hence the violets. (Violet also happens to be his daughter/assistant’s name).

We proceeded to wander Bedouin-like around the park, following the instinctive eyes and palate of Brill, who punctuated each plant highlight with an informative anecdote or an endearingly hammy gag. Or both.

You don’t want to eat that!” he advised as we encountered a large growth of skunk cabbage. Next we came upon the insect-bite-soothing jewel weed and some young shoots of mugwort, which when brewed into a tea relieves the symptoms of PMS. I drank it for a week and I had no cramps!” Wildman revealed.

Up from the river banks, we sauntered back into the park for some field garlic or onion grass and a few stalks of Japanese Knotweed.

See it or knot!” Wildman called.

He passed on the burdock root because it would have to be cooked in order to be eaten. (In case you’re wondering, it reportedly tastes like artichoke hearts.)

A large patch of garlic mustard was harvested for its spicy, sharp flavor The garlic smell and taste is used as a defense mechanism against bugs,” Wildman explained.

Down in the stinky, marshier parts of the park, w foraging folks pocketed a whole mess of allspice-tasting Common Spice Bush bits. Be careful when harvesting this,” WIldman advised, not to bump into any Spice Girls!”. We picked up dozens of stalks of cucumber-esque cattail stalks. Which prompted a request from Wildman: Don’t get any pictures of me eating this. I’m vegan!”

The Prize

Having slogged through a whole section of the park that seemed like it hadn’t seen people since the area was first settled, our foraging Sherpa led the group back to the pavilion — where salad-palooza was about to commence.

Amidst the books, cards, DVDs, audio books and i‑Phone options(urban foraging? Yes, there’s an app for that), volunteers washed, chopped and diced the sizable pile of greenery that was soon to be a meal.

Which turned out to be quite delicious.

Super fresh, green, crisp, and far more flavorful than that store-bought salad powered down for lunch, this bowl of park-grown love was quickly devoured by the masses. We all enjoyed the event and broadly smiled to prove it.

I want to teach as many people as possible what’s available to them,” Brill concluded. And to protect their natural resources and educate the children.”

People left with kids in tow, large stalks of cattails poking out of backpacks and canvas bags filled with leaves of now-known origin, nearly everyone happily munching on something that, any other day, they would have hit with the Weed Whacker.

Mission accomplished, Wildman.

Forager Jack Hitt helps prepare the bounty.

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