
New Yorkers looking to save a buck are scavenging NYC parks for their meals — plucking plants to turn into homemade coffee and root beer
NY Post
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.