For the past few years I have always seen these adds for foraging with Wildman Steve Brill. So I finally had a chance to go on one of these tours. I'm glad I went because this foraging tour was very informative and on top of that Steve made it pretty entertaining as well. I now notice things in the wild that I never noticed before. I now see food and medicine growing on the ground where before all I saw was flowers and weeds. Steve Brill has been doing these tours for 28 years so he has a lot of great information and knowledge about wild plants. Steve also helped design a Cellphone App for identifying wild foods, which has great potential to help educate people about wild plants, especially if people could learn about the environment at the same time. Steve brings his iPad to show photos of plants in various stages to help identify certain plants. Steve also talks about what time of the year the plants are edible and when they are ripe for picking. He also has great recipes for preparing and enjoying these wonderful wild foods. So if you have a chance I highly recommend this tour.
This particular tour was in my home town of Danbury at Tarrywile Park. So I grabbed my backpack and camera and jumped on my bicycle and rode over to my favorite city park. It was Halloween and a beautiful fall day. I have been to this park hundreds of times but Steve made it seem like it was my first visit. Below is a ten minute clip of some of the moments of this 3 hour tour. I edited out a lot of the stories that he told and stuck mainly with the most valuable information. I will add some of the other stories later because some of those stories are pretty funny.
Nature Loving Vegan and Naturalist Steve Brill finding Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants Tarrywile Park in Danbury Connecticut October 31, 2010
Below are some of the still photos I took on the tour. I even added some old photos that I took at the park that show more of the wild plants that are edible and healthful.
The Day started out clear skies and sunny, then 40 minutes later the clouds moved in. Then 60 minutes later storm clouds and then by the end of the tour we had complete overcast skies. For a photographer it's always a challenge to adjust to the weather but in Connecticut where the saying goes "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes... it will change"
Note: All mushrooms should be cooked before eating and you should first sample a very small piece of the mushroom to see if you have any adverse reactions. More Mushroom Photos
