What is in your Foraging Kit?

May 30, 2024 06:24:50

Ziploc bags for fruit, leaves, stems & seeds, also pill bottle for seeds, so I can gather many kinds with out mixing them.
I would say a knife, but I carry that everywhere that not an airport or government building, I try to avoid both.
I carry a small shovel, hand pruners, loppers & folding saw in my truck, I wear long clothes' & boots, sometimes a coat & hat.
Small first aid kit for chiggers, insect bites.
I do less foraging then some, because I have fruit from February/march-Asparagus, April-May Beets & turnips, May-June
Blue berries, blackberries, raspberries & Strawberries.
Garlic /onions & plums June-July, Figs July- October, Grapes, persimmons, nuts, paw paw, Hawthorne, red sumac.
I have Huckleberry & American gooseberries, Buffalo berry & Silver weed from Washington State, but they are not bearing
as of this year.

May 30, 2024 06:31:41

Our most foraged for things are red clover and St John's Wort. So we take big cloth bags to dump into the basket, nippers, a muddling stick, big Mason jars and oil to start the infusion process for St John's in the field!

May 30, 2024 06:55:40

Usually, a harvest knife (sickle shaped) and a hip basket. I line the basket with a plastic bag if needed. If gathering larger quantities of, say, leafy greens, I just use the garden hod. I meant to buy a mushroom knife with a brush, but never got around to it, so I just use the harvest knife. I clean it in between different things harvested.

May 30, 2024 09:25:46

Tj Simpson wrote:Metal colander with drain holes. Tried mushroom hunting with paper bags while everything was wet once, didn't go well.

I think the best think for mushrooms are “laundry bags”…. Nylon netted bags, let the mushrooms breath and spores disseminate

May 30, 2024 11:54:48

Greg Martin wrote:I picked up a berry picker this year and love it!!! Can't believe I didn't get one sooner.

This works for picking wild rose hips and hawthorn berries.

May 30, 2024 21:16:51

Same as few were already mentioned ; knife, basket, shovel, gloves, scissors, netting top hoodie against bugs, a bear spray, water in thermos and an air tight lidded pail for plants/transplants.

By the way, the berry picker is not plant friendly. Along with fruits, it strips the plant/bushes leaves, leaving bare branches, less picking the next season as the plant dries up and die.
Not sure if it still true, and I don't want to spread lies, that this apply to commercial picking, or personal picking , but they used to be illegal to use.
Either way, I never used it nor will I ever use.

May 30, 2024 22:21:02

By the way, the berry picker is not plant friendly. Along with fruits, it strips the plant/bushes leaves, leaving bare branches, less picking the next season as the plant dries up and die.
Not sure if it still true, and I don't want to spread lies, that this apply to commercial picking, or personal picking , but they used to be illegal to use.
Either way, I never used it nor will I ever use.

I can see your concern and urge giving due consideration to how and what it is used on. I can imagen that low growing blueberries would be badly damaged. I do not use it on my high bush blueberries because they are not all ripe at the same time.
However the verry tough wild roses and Hawthorn do not suffer in my experience the roses are going into dormancy and the Hawthorn did not show enough damage to be of concern.

May 31, 2024 12:39:17

If it strips leaves(which makes sense), then I won't use it on my blueberries or elderberries, but it makes it even more perfect for my wild blackberries, because the canes only produce for one year, anyway, and I'm also looking to harvest a high amount of leaves, for my herbal teas. Blackberry leaves have essentially the same health benefits of raspberry leaves, which I go through MUCH faster than the berries, themselves.

May 17, 2025 15:42:59

I made a walking stick I call The Forager. It has a hook to pull those hard to reach branches down, and hooks in the opposite direction to hang bags from.

Get me the mayor's office! I need to tell her about this tiny ad:

montana community seeking 20 people who are gardeners or want to be gardeners

https://permies.com/t/359868/montana-community-seeking-people-gardeners

SKIP=SKills to Inherit Property PEP Permaculture Experience According to Paul cooking