WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES AUGUST 1, 2019 25
BUZZ
‘Wildman’ reveals edible Forest Park
BY JACOB KAYE
JKAYE@QNS.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
A group of about 20 people
gathered on the northwest
corner of Forest Park in Kew
Gardens on a warm Saturday morning
in July. The park’s playground,
basketball courts and baseball fi elds
did not interest them. They were there
for something else.
They had come to eat the park.
Led by “Wildman” Steve Brill and
his 15-year-old daughter, Violet, the
foraging tour group prepared to
taste the wild edible flora growing
right under their feet, beneath their
park blanket and between the cracks
in their sidewalk.
Brill and his daughter promised to
help the group identify plants they
might normally dismiss as weeds
or worse, and to share recipes that
could make trips to the grocery store
or a restaurant obsolete.
Brill has lead foraging tours since
the ‘80s, when he was famously
arrested by park police for eating a
dandelion in Central Park. While the
charges were eventually dropped,
Brill capitalized on the absurdity
of his situation and eventually took
a gig with the Parks Department,
leading the very tours he was
arrested for.
While he no longer works with the
city agency, his tours, and his lore,
live on.
“He’s legendary,” said Aviv
Goldgeier, an engineer and musician
from Ridgewood, who had come
on the tour with his girlfriend,
Kristen Lawrence, an engineer and
beekeeper also from Ridgewood.
The pair had joined the tour for
several reasons. Goldgeier was
experiencing a “weirdly intense
plant identification phase” in his
life, whereas Lawrence wanted
to get back in touch with nature,
something she’s missed since
moving to the city. The couple was
also looking for a solution to an
unruly weed problem taking hold
of their backyard.
“We can eat all our weeds now,”
Lawrence said.
At the beginning of the tour, Brill
laid out five books along a stone
ledge outside of the park. He had
written them all.
A cookbook, packed with Brill’s
original foraging recipes, included
entries for dishes like “Miso Soup
with Sea Lettuce,” “Czech Elderberry
Pancakes” and “Daylily Kimchi.”
Brill is a self-taught forager and
has a near encyclopedic knowledge
of the flora that slyly surrounds
Wildman’ Steve Brill and his daughter Violet Brill lead a foraging tour through Forest Park on Saturday, July 27.
the city.
He grew up in Kew Gardens but
lives in Westchester now.
“My heart is still in Queens though,”
he said.
In addition to his recipes, Brill
has also created many drawings and
paintings of the wildlife he’s learned
about. It’s clear that he’s obsessed,
and in love.
As he led the group through an
intersection in Forest Park, Brill, 70,
told them that they were only blocks
from the spot where his mother read
him his first science book.
“And I was hooked,” he said.
Michael Sadler, the co-owner and
co-creator of Republic of Booza, an
ice cream shop in Williamsburg,
showed up to the tour a little late. But
it was OK.
This was his fourth tour
with Brill.
“I’m trying to learn about wild
edibles,” said Sadler. “Every time
there’s new stuff.”
Sadler, who carried a notebook
filled with the wisdom Brill had
passed along, had come with a
surprise. The day before he had
found a few mushrooms and wanted
to show them to Brill.
“I wanted to get the sage’s blessing
before eating them,” Sadler said.
Later in the tour, Sadler, walking
ahead of the group, found a patch of
mushrooms hiding in the dirt.
Brill, excited by the find, informed
the group that this type of mushroom,
while safe to eat after cooking, will
turn to ink after a while and so, must
be eaten only when ripe.
“You can’t eat ink,” Brill told
the group.
“Because it ’s poisonous? ”
Goldgeier asked.
“No,” Brill said. “Because it’s like
eating ink.”
While “Wildman” is the original,
his daughter is the new and improved
version. Just ask Brill.
“She’s definitely going to surpass
me, if she hasn’t already done so,”
Brill said in an interview. “She causes
me problems. She finds all the plants
and mushrooms faster than I do and
steals all my jokes.”
The father-daughter duo worked as
a pair for most of the tour but there
were plenty of times when it became
clear that Violet was in charge.
She would spot plants from afar,
run up to them, and begin to inform
the group about what they were
looking at. Brill let her lead, no
questions asked.
Brill began taking his daughter on
foraging tours when she was only 2
months old. From a young age, she
would jump out of her stroller and
her make her way into the dirt,
Brill said.
“It’s just a part of me,” Violet said.
By 9 years old she began to co-lead
tours with her father. Now, at the age
of 15, she leads tours by herself.
With plans to attend Cornell for
college and to major in ornithology,
Photo by Jacob Kaye
the study of birds, Violet hopes to
help kids follow their curiosity about
the natural world, and to help adults
rediscover theirs.
“You should keep the curiosity kids
have throughout your life,” she said.
“You really don’t need to go far to
find it.”
Jessica and Danny Rivera, a couple
from Kew Gardens, brought their two
daughters, Samantha, 4, and Isabella,
almost 2, along for the tour.
“It’s really cool to be able to get your
own park in this way,” Jessica said.
While Isabella spent most of the
tour inside a baby pouch strapped to
her mom, Samantha walked around,
engaged and excited, carrying
a bag filled with the fruits of
her foraging.
“I got a bag of nature,” Samantha
said, holding her bag high in the air.
Violet took notice of Samantha and
made sure to always give her samples
of whatever plant the group had just
found. They had brief conversations
throughout the tour.
As the group made its way back to
the starting point, Samantha stopped
and pointed to the ground.
“It’s just a little coconut,” she said.
The group got close and giggled.
Samantha was wrong, but a seed
had been planted.
More information about “Wildman”
Steve Brill and Violet can be found
here. The duo will be back in Forest
Park on Sept. 15, 2019.
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