Urban Foraging

Interview With “Wild Man” Steve Brills

~ Nicholas Tippins
Steve and Violet Brills harvesting burdock root.
Steve and Violet Brills harvesting burdock root 4 years ago.

“Wild Man” Steve Brills and his daughter Violet lead educational foraging tours throughout the greater New York tri-state area, including in Central Park. Steve was arrested 30 years ago in Central Park by undercover agents on charges of criminal mischief for eating a dandelion. “That got me so much publicity that they dropped the charges, and the parks department hired me to teach foraging,” he says.

When not teaching about wild foods, Steve can often be found foraging and cooking wild meals with his eleven-year-old daughter. Violet started foraging at the age of two months and, according to her father, “knows the ins and outs of every single plant.”

I reached Steve and Violet by Skype at their home in upstate New York. They had just come in from a walk in which they found Artist’s Mushrooms and enjoyed a late first snow. They regaled me with jokes, skits, and stories as we talked. Continue reading →

Wild Food for Busy People: Easy Ways To Include Wild Food In Your Diet

~ Nicholas Tippins

Walking into the field with a shovel. Cold hands on the smooth wooden handle. You are warmed by the smell of earth as you dig. Hands plunge into chill earth, searching with strong fingers. Finally, you clutch the wise burdock root, and you feel somehow compelled to bow.

Easy Ways to Add Wild Food to Your Diet
Salad of Romaine lettuce and wild Toothwort, Purple Dead Nettle and Redbud flowers. Photo by Jay Sturner.

There is something to be said for taking one’s time with plants. They offer so much more to our psyches than most of us living a modern lifestyle can comprehend. Watching a plant through all of its seasons, befriending the little star lady Chickweed and allying yourself with Burdock’s ancient wisdom. There is nothing to describe the joy. It is something like coming home.

But not everyone is up for harvesting burdock, or even devoting much of their busy lives to foraging. Continue reading →

Sam Thayer on Urban Foraging

~ Nicholas Tippins ~ 1 Comment

On my path through the internet today, I stumbled upon Sam Thayer, the midwest’s wild food guru. He’s written two guides that I often see on people’s shelves, all at varying degrees of wear. Some are practically falling apart from use.

In the interview, Sam brings up an important point: you don’t have to live on a farm or next to a national park to harvest wild food. City-dwellers have an abundance of wild foods right out their front door. Like anywhere else, you just have to know what to look for.

Photo by nathanmac87.
Photo by nathanmac87.

Continue reading →