Hiking in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, NY

Today is my mother's yahrzeit - she gave me the drive to get more into edible and medicinal wild plants. Two weeks ago, May 1st, Gershon and I went hiking and foraging in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Wild garlic mustard was growing everywhere we went! With the help of Wildman Steve Brill's "Shoots and Greens of Early Spring in Northeastern North America", we found ramps (quite a few) and trout lily, in addition to the garlic mustard. We also saw lesser celandine with poisonous yellow violets. I was paging through Samuel Thayer's " The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants" at home and think we also saw spring beauties and marsh marigolds. We took home an armload of garlic mustard and about 20 ramps - delicious! Gershon said the ramps, of Rapunzel fame, were the best wild plant he had tried so far. I was totally worn out from the hike but it was so worth it. I'm looking forward to more adventures.