Serviceberries
This Saturday:
Brooklyn Bridge Park Walk
7 June 2014, 1pm - 3pm
On a stroll from Pier 1 to Pier 6 and environs, come and discover the wild edible plantings of Brooklyn's most botanically rich and Northeast-native inclined park. It has the best view in New York, too.
From sassafras and blueberries, cattails and pickerel weed, bayberry and sweetfern, to sumac and sweet serviceberries (pie recipe on p107 of 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life), here is an outdoor classroom that allows us to spot and identify a wealth of indigenous wild edibles.
Mulberries
On the parks edge's we'll find edible invasive such as mulberries and day lilies.
Day lilies
We meet in the park in at Pier 1, at the entrance to the wine bar and cafe near the pond (straight in line with Doughty Street), off Furman Street - see map link: look for red markers).
The closest subways are the 2/3 at Clark Street, from where it is a 10 minute walk downhill to the park, or the F to York Street, which is about 12 minutes away on foot.
The walk will end at the foot of Atlantic Avenue. There is plenty of good shopping upstream, and at Sahadi's you can purchase foraging-related items for the kitchen, such as powdered sumac, and mahlab (wild cherry kernels)...
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I read your post on gardenista about gardening in harlem and loved it - you phrased it so well - the haves and have nots, the fishbowl effect of our postage stamps yards,where our private lives and privilege are exposed for the neighbors to see. What I have found refreshing is the wonder and contagion of gardening rather than resentment. I have had numerous requests to help neighbors tackle their own spaces - you might be surprised this summer. Soon you'll be known as the "Girl who likes to play in the dirt". It's a wonderful community - I'm glad it has grown on you. We are north facing as well and have new dawn climbing rose, presidential clematis, what was supposed to be a dwarf shrub rose and is neither dwarf nor shrub, a peach tree that perished this nasty winter, and numerous other annuals. Enjoy, and get a sound machine for the night noise :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful comment, Holly. Sorry about your peach tree!
DeleteWe have a sound machine :-) Neighbourhood noises may become a summer issue but our noise was closer to home and more fraught, though much better than before. Long story.
Wish I'd known about all these goodies during my New York City days. My son is soon moving to Brooklyn, so perhaps I will be able to go on one of your tours when I visit. Hope so.
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