Exclusive | New Yorkers looking to save a buck are scavenging NYC parks for their meals plucking plants to turn into homemade coffee and root beer
They’re taking a bite of the Big Apple — literally.NYC parks sound like the last place you’d want to eat something off the ground.However, a growing number of New Yorkers are perusing these urban oases for wild berries, top-shelf fungi and other locavore eats not available at Gotham’s inflation- and tariff-ravaged grocery stores.And urban foraging is in full bloom in NY — just ask the pied piper of the park-to-table trend, “Wildman” Steve Brill.“I did have one tour in 1983 with just one attendee, and two years ago I had to turn people away in Central Park and Prospect Park when a hundred people signed up,” Brill told The Post.
Over 60 people, including The Post, joined him during a late March trip to Prospect Park.And Brill isn’t the only fun-gi: Type in “NYC foraging” on TikTok and you’ll see recent videos galore of Gothamites picking wild blackberries in Central Park, turkey tail mushrooms on Randall’s Island and other farmer’s market-caliber hauls, sometimes a stone’s throw from a Duane Reade.A proud vegan and former professional chef, Brill has been leading free tours since 1982 in Central Park all the way to Forest Park in Queens.Along with helping others graze Gotham’s cornucopia, the 76-year-old Queens native and author also teaches online foraging courses and has an app featuring 250 species.On a recent expedition to Central Park, the veteran grazer held up a clump of oyster mushrooms harvested from a stump near a jogging path. “[These are] the first mushrooms we found this year,” Brill, sporting his trademark brimmed hat and toting a jumbo garden spade, explained to the 30 or so attendees.
“Definitely one of the top mushrooms on Earth.You cook them in seafood recipes and they’re absolutely wonderful.”The plant pioneer then handed out the earthy fungi to the hungry crowd, who eagerly filled their bags like adult trick-or-treaters. These OG Easter Egg hunts couldn’t have come at a better time.
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