"Wildman" Steve Brill

Foraging expert Steve Brill has shared his foraging wisdom at schools, museums, parks departments, environmental organizations, and with scout troops since 1982. He’s written three books and an app, stars in a DVD and maintains a website.

His History with Foraging

As part of his exercise regime, he was bicycling past a local park in Queens, New York City, where he lived, when he saw some ethnic Greek women, dressed in traditional black garb, collecting something. He stopped and asked what they were doing but couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. It was all Greek to him. He came home with a bag of wild grape leaves, which he readily stuffed. They were delicious. When he returned to the same park in the fall, the trees were festooned with fox grapes, the wild forerunner of Concord grapes, and they're scrumptious too. He got books on the subject and began learning all the wild food he could find. He had so much fun foraging, he thought other people might enjoy it too, and that led to his foraging tours.

The purpose of his hands-on program is to learn about the environment and get back in touch with nature. By studying foraging and nature, we enjoy our renewable resources and reaffirm our commitment to preserving and rebuilding our ecological riches. All the tours and presentations feature a great diversity and abundance of common, renewable, seasonal edible and medicinal wild plants or mushrooms.

All tours are open to people of all ages, plus well-behaved dogs.