Foraging for Salad in Floyd Bennett Field

Those who shop at greenmarkets cut out the supermarket middleman by buying their produce straight from the farmer. Lois Pinetree, a member of the Floyd Bennett Garden Association (and self-proclaimed “advocate for the wild plants that are being murdered wholesale”), cuts out the farmer, too — she shops for salad in Floyd Bennett Field, and recently took a crew along to demonstrate her foraging skills. “How would we find anything edible, I wondered, as we roamed the park’s unkempt paths and vacant lots?” JJ Goode of Epicurious reports. “But there we were, in Brooklyn, plucking shepherd’s purse, lamb’s-quarters, mugwort, the flowers of purple clovers, rose petals, fennel fronds, and onion and garlic scapes (the part of the plants that grow above ground and give that lovely culinary aroma to your lawn).” It sounds unlikely, but according to JJ, a friend of ours with impeccable taste, the weed salad was delicious.
A Weed Grows in Brooklyn [Epicurious]
Wild Salad [The Floyd Bennett Garden Association]