About 20 people attended a refreshing walk in the Alewife Reservation on Wedensday June 8th with Wild Plant Foraging expert Russ Cohen. Participants from Friends of Alewife, and Sierra Club were treated to many surprises, including a pineapple weed that smells like canned pineapple that grows by the sides of the road. The safety factors and conservation ethics of wild food foraging were also presented. Foragers discovered many different environs in the Reservation from meadow, to cattail marsh to river bank to the edge of bike path. Russ also whetted the participants' appetites with many recipes for cooking these plants from jams and jellies to stuffed grape leaves to Japanese Knotweed/ strawberry pie.

Many plants are edible in just one season for example, plants with berries, while others have parts of the plant that are edible almost all year round like milk weed. Russ guided this walk as part of the Biodiversity Days sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions. For additional information about Russ Cohen, pick up a copy of his recently-published book 'Wild Plants I Have Known...and Eaten,' or visit http://users.rcn.com/eatwild/bio.htm