• Home
  • About
  • Calendar
  • Plant Database
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Board of Trustees Login

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest

Become a Member Donate
  • Plan Your Visit
  • Trails and Maps
  • Programs and Events
  • Learn
  • Get Involved
You are here: Home / Actions Beyond Our Borders / Exploring Wild Edible Plants with Urban Conservation Corps

May 28, 2021 by Kristin Faurest

Exploring Wild Edible Plants with Urban Conservation Corps

“A weed is simply a plant whose virtues we haven’t yet discovered.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Interpretive Programs Manager Wren Smith ventured into the city last week for a visit with Urban Conservation Corps members at the Smoketown headquarters of YouthBuild Louisville. YouthBuild, which offers vocational opportunities to youth ages 16-22, maintains about an acre of fruit trees, beehives, chickens, turkeys, herb and vegetable gardens and greenhouses. But it was in the interstitial places that the magic was happening, with Wren plucking up sprigs of edible wild plants that thrive in urban environments like Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album), Wood sorrel (Oxalis spp.) and Curly Dock (Rumex crispus). Not to mention the endlessly-versatile and wildly underestimated dandelion, which lends itself graciously to salads, tea, winemaking, and — who knew? — vegan crabcakes! So to paraphrase Emerson: There’s no such thing as weeds — just plants we haven’t met yet!

Wren’s walk and talk was part of Bernheim’s Youth Development in Nature initiative. For the past year YouthBuild’s UCC and Summerworks participants have completed six week work-study programs onsite at Bernheim. As a natural outgrowth of that collaboration, Bernheim’s Education, Horticulture and Natural Areas staff are bringing Bernheim to the city. The outreach includes more than 40 hours of hands-on collaborative learning at the YouthBuild campus in everything from green roofs to pollinator habitat to collaborative environmental art to creating a brand for an urban garden and community space.

Bernheim is an amazing place, but what it offers doesn’t have to end when we leave its gates. It’s a feeling that we can take with us so anyone can connect with nature — anywhere. We’re proud to be working with these creative, inquisitive young people as their hard work continues to transform their space into a thriving and welcoming urban environment.

Filed Under: Actions Beyond Our Borders, Education, Homepage Blog Feed

  • Let There Be Light, George Grey Bernard

Thank you to our Corporate Partners!


Thank you to our Corporate Partners!

  • Kindred
  • Beam Suntory
  • Westrock
  • Quest Outdoors
  • Patagonia
  • Luckett & Farley
  • WMB
  • Brown Forman
  • GE Appliances

Sign up for our newsletter

  • Sign up and receive special information about our programs and events.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FOLLOW US

Copyright © 2019 Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest    |   Bernheim is an Arbnet level 4 certified garden
Privacy Policy | Policies and Guidelines | Research | Press Room  | Site Map

The Millennium Trail is closed today due to a heat index above 95 degrees. Elm Lick Trail hikers must be on the trail by 11 a.m.