Take a Walk with Witches

On a warm Sunday afternoon, a group of people gather for a tour around Oakland’s Lake Merritt. It isn’t just any tour – it’s a Witches’ Walking Tour. Phoenix Love Armenta, who calls herself the “Woke Witch,” leads the monthly, two-mile plant identification walk. She stops to point out boring-looking trees and shrubs that have hidden properties – magical, edible, or homeopathic. They’re plants we might normally ignore, but today they’re the star of the show.

All sorts of people come along with Armenta: a young guy carrying his longboard; a high school student in black fishnets; an avid mushroom forager in a bucket hat; his daughter with her vape pen. Our reporter Margaret Katcher joins one of these tours, and brings us this audio postcard, with Phoenix Armenta as our guide.