Forgotten suburb food forest?

Earlier this year I was exploring town when I "discovered" that there’s a bike park behind the community garden I tend.

As a person who bikes everywhere in town now, I decided I’d check it out. Turns out, it leads to one of the few deeply forested areas of town. Very few people seem to know about it so it’s always empty.  Well, almost always empty, there was a family that came through after me, also looking for edibles, but they were outliers- I've never seen anyone when I've gone since.

Within, there were all sorts of foragables and plants I don’t usually come across at the other parks (There’s a part with about 30 feet of ferns there are nearly half as tall as me!) With the moisture, and prevalence of oaks, It seemed like the perfect spot for Dryad’s saddle and, not only did I find some, but I found what may have been the best spot for them.

Once you get past a certain point, there’s a pile of dead oaks in a large grove. Everywhere I looked there were fresh dryad’s saddle, or at least signs that there had been some. I ended up harvesting around 4 pounds of it before I stopped. and since dryad’s saddle comes back year after year (until the wood’s gone), I now have a spot for when I have to scratch that itch for mushroom potato soup.

On the note about foragables, I've gone back nearly every other week and I started to wonder if it used to be a food forest. In one patch, there's five or ten black walnut trees. In another, a patch of pines and two mulberry trees. All along the creek that runs through, there's gooseberry, strawberry and black raspberry. Burdock grows rampant through out and a cluster of willows sits at the edge. There are even white morels. It just seems all too convenient.

I'm not complaining, but I'm hoping to run into one of the homeowners who live by the park and see if I can find out the land's history- especially now that it seems construction is beginning at the park's edge.

What a lovely find.

I think there are a lot of places like this that are near cities that have great types of wildlife and nature.  Many people in cities and suburbs are too busy with their lives to notice. Also many of them just don't have friends who forage, ride bikes, or wander around places looking for something cool.
JohN S
PDX OR

John Suavecito wrote:I think there are a lot of places like this that are near cities that have great types of wildlife and nature.  Many people in cities and suburbs are too busy with their lives to notice. Also many of them just don't have friends who forage, ride bikes, or wander around places looking for something cool.
JohN S
PDX OR

This gave me a good chuckle- foraging is a great motivator for finding spots like this, and I could certainly believe there are more places all over for those hoping to stumble on them.