Welcome to my plant walk and forage picnic page. The 2026 Spring Walks are ready. Scroll all the way down to see what has been added. Or linger and read.
If you are here to buy a Gift Walk for someone, you'll find that payment tab just above the Spring Walks 2026.
For private walks and consultation inquiries for next year, or to be added to my quarterly-ish mailing list, please get in touch by email.
myviljoen (at) gmail (dot) com
My book, Forage, Harvest, Feast - A Wild-Inspired Cuisine, is a substantial foraging and growing resource, with plant info for collection and for cultivation, and over 500 recipes for three dozen plants. It is intended as a guide for exploring the range of possibilities for delicious and very versatile botanical ingredients growing (or begging to be grown) near you. Buy it from the publisher, your local bookshop, or Amazon.
About my Walks
I lead plant walks and nature immersions in wild and tame green spaces. As much as these experiences are about sharing my passion for plants, and about identifying edible plants, they are an introduction to the rich natural world that surrounds us, even in the middle of a city.
Every part of every season offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the plants that live with us in plain sight, especially in places where we do not expect to find them. Yes, we even walk in winter.
Groups are small, low-impact, and personal. It's not unusual for new friendships to grow over the course of the walk. Meet plants, make friends!
On our field trips we identify and talk about so-called weeds, or plants whose habit is invasive; introduced species; and native plants, some of which could - and should, but still don't - define an authentic regional cuisine. Awareness, sustainability and stewardship are the cornerstones of these interactions with nature. My own approach evolves, and I welcome the diverse perspectives that everyone brings to our roving discussions.
I hope to help tune your senses to the botanical and natural details at our feet, and above our heads. Nature is right here, and deserves to be seen.
Most walks end with a wild-inspired tasting picnic. It's exactly what it sounds like: Tastes of in-season, wild ingredients, as well as preserved small-batch forages from my feral pantry. Where possible, non-foraged ingredients are organic or locally-grown. Although I have been known to swoop on something interesting from the local bodega. I take broad dietary preferences (vegan, vegetarian, omnivore) into account where possible within a group.
You can also book a diet-specific, private walk.
Ways to Walk and Talk
Scheduled Walks - seasonal group walks are posted here (scroll down).
Gift Walks - buy an open ticket to any scheduled walk; valid for one year.
Plant Identification - I identify plants on your land, public space, or in your garden.
Talks, Classes - for botanic gardens, design firms, conservancies, garden clubs, etc.
Consultation - native and edible garden creation, wild recipes, mixology and menus.
Private Walks - for institutions, corporate groups, schools, families, friends.
Cancellation Policy
Refunds are at my discretion: Walks with picnics take a lot of time to plan and prepare. If you cancel with up to three days' notice you are welcome to use your ticket (purchased or gifted) as credit towards a future walk. Cancellations within three days of a walk do not receive a refund or credit.
Gift Walks
A Gift Walk ($95) is an open ticket that offers admission to any of my seasonal plant walks with forage-picnics (classes I teach for outside institutions like the NYBG are not included). Give an experience that includes plant identification, nature immersion, wild-inspired treats, and the company of interesting and interested humans. Valid for one year. Gift Walks are non-refundable.
Spring Walks 2026
Vernal Equinox (DATE CHANGE)
21 March 2026
11am - 1.30pm
Prospect Park
$85
The climate is in chaos. But winter will end. Really. Our walk will end with celebratory evening sips of spring drinks and canapé-tastes of the most anticipated season. If it's cold the drinks will be hot. If it's balmy, they will not.
And it's goodbye to the sticks of the last many months, because...buds. And hello - hopefully - to the (winter) honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, its species name so deliciously earned. This East Asian shrub's scented flowers make excellent ferments. We are also sure to see the early signs of edible spring in the form of field garlic. Spicebush and red maple are in bud.
There will still be plenty of stick-signs of good things to come and we can test our identification skills. Pokeweed skeletons show us helpfully where the the perennial vegetable will appear in a few weeks.
And will we hear the earliest of the migrating birds?
Wēod Walk
18 April 2026
Historic Green-Wood
11am - 2pm
$85
($5/ticket is donated to the Historic Green-Wood Fund)
The spring lawns at beautiful Green-Wood are stitched with wildflowers and edible wēods. Come and join our roaming exploration about etymology and origins, and walk across these flowering plants.
Many of the wēods we meet under our feet have roots in Europe, and a long history of beneficial use. In the picture above is ground ivy, alehoof, tunhoof, blue-runner, cat's foot, gill-creep-by-the-ground, hedge-maids, creeping Jenny...creeping Charlie (the last, only in the US). Others are native to the Northeast. Spring beauties may be in bloom. And there will be violets.
When we are not looking down, we will look up. Because the trees in this nationally accredited arboretum are bursting into bloom. Cherries, magnolias, and more.
Expect an English tea-picnic that would make Ratty* proud.
(*From The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame)
May Day
2 May 2026
Inwood Hill Park
12pm - 3.30pm
$85
It's become a spring tradition: a May Day adventure in the wildest and most forested park in Manhattan. We'll meet a valley of spicebush, a glade of nettles, carpets of fat field garlic and garlic mustard, and perhaps some surprises. It is peak migration season and warblers will keep us company.
After hiking up, looping around, and working our way down again, we will picnic, feasting on spring.
Green Goddess Walk (Mother's Day)
Prospect Park
10 May 2026 (Sunday)
11am - 2pm
$85
May is fever-pitch for every green thing. In the woods, ground elder will begin to bloom, its edible buds tasting like lovage. May apples are hiding their pure white flowers beneath umbrella-leaves. Field garlic is fat. Mugwort, at the sunny edges, is tender. Burdock is thinking about sending up its edible stems. Wild cherries are flowering, and spicebush leaves are aromatically tender.
Our woodland picnic will feature a mid May Feral Goddess Dressing, rich and green, singing with ramp leaves from the Catskills and local field garlic, and luscious for dipping vegetables from Saturday's farmers' market and Willow Wisp Organic Farm. Finger sandwiches will be stuffed with tender pokeweed and wild lettuce shoots. Dessert will be.... What will dessert be?
Come and see.
Highly recommend this small magical moment away from politics in this crazy moment of history. Where else can you drink an infusion of yuzu and linden flowers? I was so drowsy by the time I got home- maybe linden flowers, more likely the fresh air and 4 mile walk through slightly hilly and uneven ground.
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Thank you so much, Meg.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for the next batch! so sad I'm working tomorrow!
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