Meet The Wildman Who Teaches New Yorkers How to Forage in Parks
Unearthing nature’s bounty and wisdom with Steve Brill
One day while biking through Cunningham Park in Queens, “Wildman” Steve Brill found a small group of elderly women harvesting grape leaves. He was already interested in nutrition, cooking and veganism. So he picked some and used them to create an original recipe for stuffing. When Brill returned in the fall, he found wild grapes, which he said are more flavorful, sour, and nutritious than the commercial version.
Gradually, Brill started collecting books to help him identify edible plants but realized many contained errors and omissions. He was in that same park in Queens when he had the idea that other people might also enjoy learning how to forage. So he sent news releases to papers and put up flyers advertising his educational nature walks.
People slowly started coming on the tours, and now he’s widely considered one of the top experts in foraging within the Northeastern United States. He continues to host those public tours and often works with schools, nature centers, museums, and other community groups to share his knowledge of edible native wildlife on private tours. Last year, a video of one of his nature walks went viral on social media, and he had to close the registration to one of the following tours after 100 people signed up. He’s also written several books and started an app called “Foraging with the Wildman,” featuring Brill’s original artwork, photos, and recipes.
“I turned 75 on March 10th, and I am healthy and fit,” said Brill. “[There’s] only one element I cannot get rid of, and that’s a severe case of CCD… Compulsive Cooking Disorder.”
He has a seemingly endless supply of corny jokes that are a signature part of his nature walks.
“People learn better with humor and stories and anecdotes,” said Brill. “If you just stuff your head with one fact after the other, after the other, it all sort of melts together.”
He said this style of teaching is also inspired by ancient civilizations who relied on myths and folklore to verbally pass on information about plants.
Another important part of his signature style as the Wildman is his appearance. The name Wildman came to him while meditating in his 20s, but it wasn’t until he cultivated his look that people started seeing him as this new persona.
“I went to an Army Navy store, long before Amazon, bought a pith helmet, and grew a beard,” said Brill. “Ever since then, people said, ‘You look just like I thought you were going to.’”
Not everyone has been supportive of Brill’s mission to educate. In the mid-80s, a pair of undercover officers joined the tour of Central Park and arrested him. The story was covered by many large news outlets, including the Associated Press and BBC News. The Parks Department ultimately dropped the charges and hired him to host the same walks he was arrested for, said Brill in an article for Gothamist.
This year on March 31, he led a small group through Forest Park in Queens during a sunny Easter Sunday. While children in the park hunted for plastic eggs, he showed the group how to identify honewort, garlic mustard, ramps, violets, black birch trees, and more. He also shared some of his original recipes like “Stick Pudding,” a dessert flavored with black birch. This type of tree contains methyl salicylate, a low-dose aspirin, which is why Brill gave his daughter black birch twigs to chew on when she was teething as a baby.
There are many other health benefits to foraging.
“When the plants are analyzed, they are smaller and not as pretty as the commercial plants, but they have way more nutrition,” said Brill. “When you’re foraging, you’re not eating all of the refined products that are so strongly implicated in chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease.”
Some research has shown that harvesting your own food can have positive impacts on health.
“You’re avoiding all the processed food and all of the animal products that are so hard on the environment, not to mention not pleasant for the animal,” said Brill.
And it’s a more affordable option that could help address urban food insecurity, especially with how food prices have been on the rise recently. Also, less wealthy boroughs like the Bronx have fewer farmer’s markets and more bodegas than other neighborhoods, potentially contributing to the poorer health outcomes of those residents.
Brill tries to keep his nature walks accessible by only requiring a suggested donation of $20.
Another affordable option for New Yorkers is gardening, something that is on the rise in the face of the high grocery costs.
“Community gardens are really a wonderful place for people to start,” said Annette Nielsen, executive director of NYC Food Policy Center. “That community aspect is really lovely too, and I think we all benefit from that.”
Nielsen pointed out that there can be issues with polluted soil when foraging in a city.
“Urban soils, not just in New York City but across the globe, might have contaminants,” said Nielsen. “It’s one of those things you need to be aware of before you put a plant in the ground because the plant’s going to get its nourishment from that soil.”
Nielsen grew up foraging for fiddleheads, ramps and mushrooms with her father, a forester, in the Adirondacks. She emphasized the importance of learning from an experienced guide how to avoid poisonous plants.
As an expert forager, Brill’s work also plays an important role in inspiring young environmentalists.
“People that come on my tours get a greater appreciation of the environment and more motivation to protect it, to the point where people that had their first glints of nature on tours with me when they were in grade school have grown up to found their own environmental organizations,” said Brill.
But his favorite memory of educating youth on foraging is taking his daughter, Violet Brill, to a patch of blackberries when she was much younger.
“You never see blackberries anymore,” said Brill. “Too much competition from the iPhone.”
By nine years old, Violet Brill was co-leading the nature walks with him and now studies environmental sustainability at Cornell.
Brill’s advice for people who want to start foraging is to check out his many resources, find a local expert, start with the easier-to-identify plants like dandelions, and gradually build a repertoire.
You can find more information about Brill and sign up for a nature walk on his website: www.wildmanstevebrill.com.
