Video summary
The video explores the surprising abundance of edible and medicinal plants available in Central Park, New York City, challenging the common misconception that urban parks lack foraging opportunities. The host guides viewers through a variety of easily identifiable species, starting with the Cornelian cherry, which is abundant on the ground and best enjoyed when it turns dark red and soft enough to fall off the tree. Other highlights include violet leaves, described as having a gentle green color perfect for salads, and Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant that can be harvested in its spring shoots stage to turn a gardening problem into a nutritious dinner solution rather than relying on pesticides.
Several other plants are introduced with specific preparation methods and nutritional benefits. Mulberry fruits are noted for their sweetness, while the young, tender tips of the leaves offer a fresh green option. The host also discusses Pokeweed, explaining that although it is toxic if eaten raw, it becomes a highly nutritious staple when properly boiled, often requiring a double-boil process. Additionally, American nightshade is presented despite common misinformation, with its black berries resembling tomatoes and offering a delicious flavor when picked fresh. Plantago, or plantain, is highlighted as a medicinal powerhouse found everywhere in city parks, where the seeds can serve as a natural alternative to Metamucil for digestive health and the leaves add value to salads and cooked dishes.
The narrative continues by emphasizing the importance of bitterness in diet, using dandelion as a prime example of this principle. Known as "dent de lion" or teeth of the lion, dandelion is a bitter plant that stimulates digestion, a quality often bred out of the Standard American Diet. The host suggests that regular consumption over ten days can help the palate adjust to the bitterness. Other featured plants include purslane, which is rich in omega fatty acids and sometimes called "rich man's pepper" due to its seeds having a wasabi-like kick, and lamb's quarters, a relative of quinoa known as wild spinach that holds its form well when cooked. The basswood tree is also showcased for its multiple uses, from young leaves resembling kale to flowers used for tea and seeds that can be roasted into a chocolate-flavored treat.
The video concludes with the mighty oak tree, which produces acorns that can be harvested in the fall to create flour, meal, or porridge, offering a way to break free from reliance on grocery stores. The host shares a personal anecdote about eating twenty-five pounds of acorns this year, claiming it has fundamentally changed them at their core. Ultimately, the message is one of incredible abundance available within arm's reach in parks across the nation, encouraging viewers to reconnect with the Earth through a relationship with these plants and to step away from systems that no longer serve their health and well-being.
Read the full video transcript
I'm here in Central Park in New York
City. [music] Today is day 293 of
foraging all of my food and medicine and
I know what some of you are thinking.
Surely there's no food in Central Park.
Well, I'm about to show you otherwise
with 11 easy to [music] identify
beginner plants to forage. Join me.
>> [music]
>> Cornelian cherry, the abundance right
here in Central Park and you can see it
going to waste all over the ground here.
If you want to really enjoy the cherry,
you wait till it's soft, generally dark
red, and almost falls off when you touch
it.
Mhm, that was a good one.
Some Ceylon.
I see a salad bowl. This is violet, a
very gentle and mellow green that's
wonderful for salads or
and fresh. Foraging against the
invasion. This is Japanese knotweed and
rather than spraying with pesticides, we
can actually turn the problem of a
invasive plant into the solution of our
dinner. Japanese knotweed we harvest
when it's in the shoots stage in the
spring.
Mulberry, the fruits can be very sweet
and the leaves
are edible too. Looking for the young
and tender growth tips like we have
here, the ones that are lighter green
and where the tips break just off like
that.
We're talking about highly nutritious
greens growing right on one of the most
common trees around New York City.
Pokeweed, although this is a staple food
for many in the southern United States,
it's a little bit more of an
intermediate experience plant to forage
because you need to cook this. It is
toxic without cooking, so this is not a
salad green, but instead you boil it and
many people do a double boil, but it's
still a very nutritious and delicious
green. American nightshade or black
nightshade. There is a lot of
misinformation about this plant, but
it's eaten by millions of people around
the world. What I'm particularly going
for are these black berries. They look
kind of like a tomato. They're in the
nightshade family.
These are delicious.
Fresh just like that. And there's many
other edible ways to get to know the
black nightshade if you go further. All
these people walking by and a very few
of them realize that there's medicine
growing in this city park. This is
plantago or plantain. One way I like to
identify it is when you pull it apart,
those strings will separate from the
leaf. These here spikes. These spikes,
if you're going to the store to buy
Metamucil for the psyllium husk so that
you can, you know, go more go poop more
regularly,
you can just eat these seeds instead.
These leaves are a wonderful medicine
that I add to salad bowls and cook. What
a wonderful gift we have in almost every
city park
across in New York and most of the
country.
Within arm's reach of where I am sitting
right now, we have at least a half dozen
different edible and medicinal plants.
Gallant soldier, smartweed, dock,
dandelion, plantago, false strawberry,
mulberry leaves behind me, dandelion.
Named dandelion for dent de lion, teeth
of the lion.
And this is a bitter plant. Bitter is
medicine. In the SAD, Standard American
Diet, SAD for short, bitterness has been
bred out. But that bitterness, that's
our medicine. It helps with stimulating
digestion.
And the simple way to make this less
bitter for those of you who struggle
with that,
come out to the park, eat dandelion
every day, 10 days in a row, and at the
end of the 10 days,
it'll be less bitter.
Purslane coming through the cracks, this
is a food that is high in omegas. Pretty
unusual in the plant world. Do I eat it?
Yes.
Some people call this poor man's pepper,
but I learned it as rich man's pepper by
my friend Eric Joseph Lotus because
eating this plant doesn't make you poor,
it makes you rich.
You harvest these seeds and they've got
a
nice wasabi kick to them.
Lamb's quarters, related to quinoa
actually, and also called wild spinach.
When you cook these greens, it has a
similar consistency to spinach. Very
delicious, holds its form, and one of my
absolute favorite vegetables no matter
where I'm shopping or foraging. Lamb's
quarter, a real treat.
This is a young basswood tree here and
you definitely know it's basswood when
you see this tongue-like bract and the
basswood seeds spore when it's in
flower. Three different edible and
medicinal parts of this plant. You can
eat the leaves, this is like a giant
kale tree here when they're young and
tender. You can harvest the flowers and
this bract when it is buzzing with bees
in the summer, that's when you harvest
it for a nice relaxing tea. And then
later in the year you can harvest these
seeds and actually roast them and make a
chocolate-like flavor that I am yet to
try. So, the basswood is a real gift to
explore. The mighty oak, of course,
produces the acorn. If you're looking to
break free from the grocery store,
this is a plant friend for you. You can
harvest the acorns in the fall and make
wonderful food, making acorn flour,
acorn meal, and acorn porridge. This
year I've eaten 25 lb of acorns and it's
changed me at my core.
So, there you have it. You can come to
Central [music] Park or basically any
park across the nation and get your next
snack, meal, or medicine. This really is
a world of incredible abundance and
through a relationship with these
plants, we can reconnect with the Earth
and break free from the systems that no
longer serve.