courtesy of Central Park

In case you don't already know, I'm way into foraging. Sometimes it's on a client's terrace, sometimes it's in the PA woods, sometimes on Central Park West.
I had supper with my friend Leda (fellow forager) on Monday and she served a dessert of seasonal berries: amalanchier, white mulberry, currents, and strawberries, with honey and cream. Delicious, juicy, not to mention red, white, and blue. Mulberry is tough to gather in the city because you can only pick them when they're super ripe. If they don't fall off the branch at the touch of your hand, they're not ready to eat. The best way to gather is to lay a tarp under a mulberry tree and wait for the berries to fall.
Tuesday morning Leda texted me about a white Mulberry tree on Central Park West. It was just a block from my last client of the day, so I stopped by on my way home. I couldn't exactly spread a tarp on the sidewalk, so I stood on a bench and gathered about a half cup of white berries, bursting with sweet juice. And New York being New York, no one stopped to ask what I was doing or why. I stood on that bench for 15 minutes, focussed on the berries, as the busses, taxis, and pedestrians passed me by. It's amazing what's out there if you know where to look. Amazing and delicious.