Download Wildman Steve Brill

SB: OK then you do the walnut.
OK attention everyone we have something new. OK, this is the black walnut.
Narration: Even though it was fall, the sun was shining so much that I just needed a light
jacket. I was getting hungry- it was almost lunchtime and I’d been walking around for a
few hours. I was part of a group of other curious foragers. We were looking for food in
New York City, but we weren’t going to the corner store or a hot dog stand. We were
looking for food that’s apparently everywhere in Central Park. I tagged along with
Wildman Steve Brill – yes, that’s his name – who led our foraging expedition.
SB: The first time I answered the phone “Wildman Steve Brill, good morning” and no one had
heard of the name and no one knew about me it felt very weird but it worked. But at that point I
didn’t have the pith helmet and I didn’t have the beard and people kept saying “You know Brill
you don’t look like a wild man” so I went to the army/navy store, I bought the explorer’s hat I
grew a beard and now people say “You know wild man you look just like I thought you were
gonna look.” [ambient laughter]
Narration: The Wildman doesn’t lead the tours by himself. His ten year old daughter
Violet is a foraging genius. Here she is describing the black walnut.
VB: They come from that tree as you see there’s a lot up there and the black walnut the green
layer’s the husk and you can use your foot to stomp on it or a rock to smush it off [ambient
walnut smashing sounds] then there’s a nut and you can use a rock to crack it open and there’s
this white nut meat that you can eat
[ambient walnut smashing continues]
Narration: I walked with Steve, Violet, and about twenty other people on the tour all over
the north of Central Park. Steve and Violet were constantly on the lookout for plants to
show us. They were really busy. The only interview I could catch with them was when we
were walking through the park. In a four-hour tour, we tried over 15 different edible
plants. Here’s a forager tasting the meat of a black walnut after working hard to get it
open.
Guest: Ah here we go, got it. Mmm, there we go, nice.
Narration: We walked through the park quickly but stopped often. After Wildman Steve
showed us a plant, he would also share some recipes that he had invented. There were
big coffee beans that could make chocolate mole, gingko seeds that could make a nice
stir fry, and epazote that could be used to season guacamole. The calm day was in sharp
contrast to another foraging trip almost three decades ago in the same place we were at
now. In 1986 while Brill was foraging in Central Park with a group much like this one, he
was arrested. He was interviewed on WNYC just a few days after he was charged with
criminal mischief.
[begin archive tape]
SB: The park commissioner had two undercover agents come on my walk they called me up
asked where I was meeting and they came they gave me a donation and then when the walk
was over they apparently radioed their friends and they came with one of the ranger vans and
hauled me off to the police station
[end archive tape]
Narration: Wildman Steve Brill was handcuffed and fingerprinted. He was scared that he
would get a criminal record. And he was just starting his new business. But he got
lucky. They dropped the charges. The City Park service hired him as a Parks Naturalist
and he lead foraging trips on their dime from 1986 to 1990.
SB: You have to harm something to do criminal mischief and I haven’t harmed a thing. The
weeds that we picked are things that are cut down by the millions by the mowers.
Narration: Steve is good at arguing his case. He doesn’t forage any plant that won’t grow
back easily. He does way less harm to the plants than the Parks Department does with
their bulldozers and lawnmowers.
But the law hasn’t changed. It’s still illegal to pick and remove plants from the parks. In a
city of 8 million Steve Brill is the only person who has official permission to forage. But
the whole point of his expeditions is to pass his knowledge on. His daughter wants to
continue his legacy.
VB: I’m Violet Brill and I love to teach people about plants and nature.
I’ve been on the tour since I was two months old but I’ve been foraging since I was 5 or 4.
SB: Violet when you were three I lifted you up and put you in front of wine berries and you were
eating them when you were three. When you could stand I put you in front of berries and
showed you to eat them.
Narration: Violet’s knowledge of plants is, well, more than impressive. Maybe
encyclopedic’s the better word. Steve and Violet tried to switch off on introducing
plants. But usually Steve gave in to Violet’s enthusiasm.
VB: Common spice bush has oval shaped leaves and these little buds. You can make tea with
the twigs, leaves, and buds, and if you crush the leaves it smells really yummy. And now for the
contest! For the contest, who can spot what this branch collectively altogether has that no other
branch on any other tree that isn’t spice bush has?
[In response to various answers from the crowd] No...no...nope, nope….
[fade under]
Narration: Violet’s only ten years old but she’s been foraging longer than all the adults on
the tour.
VB: You can’t spot it by looking at one part here or one leaf here or even this leaf right here.
You have to look at them all together.
[fade under]
Narration: While Violet is young and with her dad, she’ll probably also be protected from
the law. But when she grows up, we’ll see what happens.
Guest: Size variety?
SB, VB: Yes! The different sizes, there’s some very small ones and there are large ones,
everything else you look at the leaves are pretty much uniform size.
Narration: What will happen to Violet when she grows up? Is the knowledge gained
worth the plants that are lost? There are so many kids like Violet growing up in cities.
And pretty much the only time they’re around nature is in parks. What kind of
regulations should we be putting on that time?
For Heritage Radio Network dot org, I’m Caitlin Pierce.