This was a demo for a series featuring foraging and innovative vegan cooking concepts that all the narrow-minded, unimaginative TV execs rejected. The recipe is a delicious, healthful mulberry ice cream without the unhealthful sugar and butterfat of conventional ice cream.
May 7, 2002. I had fun shooting this segment with Ms. Senecal, but when she had me do another segment in 2010, she skunked me. I had to drive to NYC and pay gas, tolls, and parking, and she agreed to send me a copy of the show. She never did, and refused to reply to my calls or e-mails. It's a shame such a talented person has to behave in such a trashy manner.
The Food Network
November 25, 2003
With Al Roker
Al Roker was very funny here, and this was the third time he invited me to work with him. He's very smart. I only had to show him a plant once and he'd know it. He's also very kind-hearted. I saw him take 20 minutes out of his very busy schedule to stop and sign autographs for a group of innercity kids who had recognized him!
The Wicked Witch of the West tried her best to destroy my free foraging program at the NYC Parks Dept. I resigned and resumed freelance work, and she failed. Here's TV coverage from 1990.
Japanese tourists, looking for somewhere to eat in Manhattan in , have the misfortune of running into me in Central Park?even though this is in Japanese, this crew is hilarious!
Joe Franklin, the King of Nostalgia, was kind enough to invite me on his talk show when I was still completely unknown, before I'd even thought of growing a beard or wearing a pith helmet. This was my first TV appearance!
6 weeks after I was arrested and handcuffed by undercover park rangers for eating a dandelion in Central Park, overwhelming national publicity forces Parks Commissioner Henry Stern to turn over a new leaf. He drops the charges and hires me to teach foraging through the NY City Dept. of Parks and Recreation, which I did for the next 4 years. Connie Collins provides excellent coverage!
Here are safety considerations you should know about when you're going to hunt for edible wild plants, from my Wild Edible Basics DVD, shot by Chris Allan.
This is an especially tasty, common, widespread mushroom that's easy to identify, with no poisonous look-alikes. Part of my Wild Edible Basics DVD, it was shot by Chris Allan.
Bruce Berkhardt goes foraging in Prospect Park, Brooklyn with me, back in the days when CNN still had an Environmental Bureau, and when reporters were sometimes allowed to be funny.
This was my big moment?CBS Evening News gave me national coverage after my arrest by undercover park rangers for eating a dandelion in Central Park. My apologies for the technical quality: I played the VHS tape too many times before personal computers were available.
Here's my musical instrument, the Brillophone, which I learned from my Dad, Henry Brill, and taught to my daughter, Violet Brill. I'm a big jazz fan, so this is a jazz version of "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover," dedicated to my all-time creative idol, jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer Bix Beiderbecke, who performed this piece in the 1920s.
I try to teach kids about nature by creating a fun and interesting interactive experience. Here's an example, at a birthday party with young kids, recorded by a parent.
![Pete\](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Lm-3xFMG5Bg/2.jpg "Pete\")
![Jeweler\](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AO90l8STXQU/2.jpg "Jeweler\")
![The Brillophone?I\](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/itjWaRBRnIo/2.jpg "The Brillophone?I\")
