There will be kids activities galore at the Earth Day Festival, but there are two particular activities that we want to point out that happen beforehand on that same day — both providing a great opportunity to give/get our youth into the spirit if the day.  You can start your day Food Foraging at 8am-9am and still have enough time to meet up with others near the River and participate at the Student-Led Climate March.

1. Food Foraging with expert Eric Stone of The Rewilding School at Crawbuckie Nature Preserve (8a-9a).
2. Student-Led Climate March – begins at the bottom or Secor Road and goes up and over the Ossining Train Station Ramp and into Engel Park (9:30a-9:45a).

Student-Led Climate March! Bring your youngsters to a kick-off March for the Earth Day Festival, beginning at 9:30a.  Its a short walk to the main stage but is a fantastic way to start the day and open the Festival.

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Food Foraging with Eric Stone/Rewilding School. A Food Foraging Tour with Rewilding School: Registration Closes at 10pm on Friday, 4/18: 8am-9am at Crawbuckie Preserve

Crawbuckie Preserve’s varied habitats provides more than enough common, renewable wild foods to keep everyone busy for an hour. Grassy areas will provide a plethora of delicious, edible lawn “weeds.” We should find chickweed, which tastes like corn, lemony-flavored sheep sorrel and wood sorrel, sweet violets, savory dandelions, field garlic (a superior member of the onion/garlic family), and related day-lilies, which also have a bite. Other spicy greens in the grass or in the woods include poor man’s pepper, hairy bittercress, and garlic mustard, all members of the mustard family.

Overgrown areas could harbor a variety of root vegetables. We’ll almost certainly find the huge leaves of burdock, with an edible root that tastes like artichokes and potatoes. We could also find sweet wild parsnips, garden escapees that taste even better than their commercial forerunners, plus flavorful wild carrots, a.k.a. Queen Anne’s Lace. The feral version of this European vegetable is more flavorful and chewy than the commercial strain, making it especially suitable for carrot cakes, soups, and cookies.

In the woods, we’ll find jewelweed, a major medicinal herb with juice that relieves a variety of skin irritations, from curing insect bites to preventing poison ivy rash. We’ll find black birch, which contains oil of wintergreen, a low-dose aspirin precursor that makes outstanding tea and an exotic flavoring for pudding and homemade ice cream. There will probably be plenty of sassafras, a renewable tree you can use to make tea, root beer, gumbo, and use an exotic sweet seasoning.

If it’s rained beforehand, we could find the season’s first gourmet wild mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms, enokis, and tree ear mushrooms all may appear early in the season.

Participation is limited. Please register by filling out the form below.

FEE: Adults & Children: $5 (which will happily be subsidized by Green Ossining if keeps you from participating)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED
– Paper bags for what you’ve foraged
– Drinking water
– Pen (to sign in)
– Proper footwear (NO SANDALS, as there may be poison ivy, bugs, and thorns)

Recommended:
– Knife
– Digger
– Work gloves
– Notepad
– Whistle (so you don’t get lost)
– Insect repellent
– Sun hat or warm hat
– Extra sweater
– Rain gear/boots if necessary

IMPORTANT INFO
– Absolutely NO SMOKING AT ANY TIME!
– Listen to the weather forecast and dress appropriately. Bring one more layer of clothing than you think you’ll need in cold weather.
– Children of all ages are encouraged to attend and learn to understand and love their planet.

QUESTIONS? Contact the Rewilding School: (914) 306-5120

REGISTER here: https://greenossining.wufoo.com/forms/qeiihwr1o4smg3/