Foraging Badge - Straw/Wood/Iron Brainstorming

We're working on defining the remaining levels for a number of badges.  We could use your help coming up with more items that could be added to the various lists!  If you haven't heard of PEP yet, please check out This Thread.

In the past we've set up badges where you have to do a set number of things from a list.  The issue with that is that picking a pound of berries isn't as hard as making 4 pounds of seed balls.  So instead, we're transitioning to a point based system.  Make 8 foraged meals, get 4 points.  Get a deer, get 8 points.  Earn 35 points and you have the Straw badge completed.  

Now that we're using a point system, it will be easier to deal with items that bridge between badges.  Harvesting and preserving food will give you points for both the Foraging badge and the Food Prep and Preservation Badge.

We've taken a shot at the upper level badges and could use your help rounding them out a bit.  Are we missing any important foraging principles, methods or concepts?

straw badge  35 points

Harvest at least five plants from the Sand Fresh list - 1/2 point each

Harvest and dry at least three plants from the Sand Dry list - 1/2 point each

Prepare at least eight dishes from the Sand Dish list (at least 5 different species) - 1/2 point each

Prepare 8 dishes (soup, salad, tea, dessert, entree, side, etc.) that feature the things you’ve foraged for other BBs - 4 points

20 pounds of seed balls/bombs - 4 points
      o at least an inch in diameter
      o can either be used immediately or quickly dried for storage (before the seeds germinate)
      o at least six different species in each ball/bomb
          - possible species:
              o nettle
              o dandelion
              o maple
              o mulberry
              o apples
              o black locust
              o sepp grain
              o daikon radish
              o alfalfa
              o tomato
              o sunflower
              o lupine
              o squash
              o kale
              o turnip
              o cherry

Save seeds from 6 species of wild plants - 2 points
    o At least one half teaspoon of each
    o Possible species:
       - Mullein
       - Sweet clover
       - Nettle
       - Apple
       - Apricot
       - Cherry
       - Berries
       - Dandelion
       - Nuts (acorn, hazelnut, walnut, chestnut, etc)
       - Dock/burdock
       - Miners lettuce
       - Sorrels

Sacagawea List (must do at least two)

Catch, butcher and preserve at least five pounds of fish(es) or ten pounds of shellfish - 4 points

Catch, butcher and preserve five wild rabbit/squirrels - 4 points

Catch, butcher and preserve one large mammal (deer, pig, elk, antelope, etc) - 8 points

Catch, butcher and preserve five wild game birds - 4 points

Harvest maple sap and reduce it down to make 1 gallons of syrup - 8 points

Collect 5 pounds of wild honey (without cutting down tree) - 4 points

Guerilla plant 500 woody perennial food seeds or cuttings (not seed bombs) - 8 points
- at least twelve different species
- possible species:
    o apple
    o pear
    o apricot
    o cherry
    o grape
    o mulberry
    o nettle

wood badge
Forage 200,000 calories from at least 10 sources
  - 6 sources of at least 10,000 calories each
        o No more than 4 of the 6 can be animal sources
        o For reference, the following have approximately 10,000 calories:
           o 14 lbs of venison
           o 17 lbs of duck
           o 15 lbs of trout
           o 42 lbs of apples
           o 100 lbs of morels
           o 3 quarts of maple syrup
  - at least half of the calories need to be dried for storage that could last more than a year at room temp - possible twofer with Food Prep and Preservation
        o can include
           o charcuterie
           o smoking
  - at least 10% is canned - possible twofer with Food Prep and Preservation

10 days eating 90% foraged food
   o 90% by calories
   o More than 6 foraged food types per day
   o Can include preserved foraged foods
   o Don’t have to be consecutive days
   o Minimum 1200 calories per day

1 mile of trail side forage gardening
   o 1 living plant per 10 feet of trail on average (so more than 500 plants)
   o within 20 feet of the trail
   o at least six different species
   o can be roadside, for rarely used dirt roads
   o the mile can be spread out between multiple stretches of trail
   o video of trail when introducing seed balls, and a general idea of what edibles were there to start
   o video of trail for several harvests and showing what plants made it
   o harvest 1000 calories each from six different species (can be from existing plants along the mile)
   o show at least 100 fruit trees at least four inches tall
   o at least 10,000 calories total (can go towards the 200,000 calorie BB)


iron badge
Forage 1,600,000 calories from at least 20 sources
  - 12 sources of at least 20,000 calories each
      o No more than 8 of the 12 can be animal sources

90 days eating 90% foraged food
   o 90% by calories
   o More than 6 foraged food types per day
   o Can include preserved foraged foods
   o One 30 day stretch
   o Four 7 day stretches
   o Minimum 1200 calories per day

1 mile of trail side forage gardening
   o 1 living plant per 1 foot of trail on average (so more than 5000 plants)
   o within 40 feet of the trail
   o at least twelve different species
   o can be roadside, for rarely used dirt roads
   o the mile can be spread out between multiple stretches of trail
   o video of trail when introducing seed balls, and a general idea of what edibles were there to start
   o video of trail for several harvests and showing what plants made it
   o harvest 5,000 calories each from six different species
   o show at least 100 fruit trees at least five feet tall
   o at least 50,000 calories total (can go towards the 1,600,000 calorie BB)

Bump!  Hey all you foragers, any input on these upper level badges?  

I edited the first post a bit per some chats with Paul so if you read it before, it's been adjusted over time a bit.

Thanks!!!

I'm thinking that if we're relying heavily on the Sand plant lists, that we might want to really expand those. It is not easy to harvest a pound of mint!

We could also maybe add:

-- graft edible fruit variety onto ornamental plant.

-- propagate a wild plant from seed or cutting or division (respectfully harvest a seed/cutting/division to grow the plant elsewhere)

-- Dye cloth with wild-harvested plants/lichens. (I think this overlap with textiles is a good one)

-- Harvest a small amount of forest microorganisms to inoculate a garden bed/compost pile/etc (could be done via Korean Natural Gardening methods, or just digging up a small, intact chunk and planting that chunk of dirt in the garden bed)

-- Make a mushroom slurry with wild mushrooms to inoculate an area with fungi

Yes!  There should be something in the straw badge about harvesting seeds!   Even a tiny amount of seeds would be a big bump.  

Right off, I can think of saving seed (from wild plants) for:

mullein
sweet clover
nettle

and if they meet our "wild" requirements:

apple
apricot
cherry
berries


What else can be added to these lists?

paul wheaton wrote:What else can be added to these lists?

First things that come to mind:

Dandelion
Nuts (acorn, hazelnut, walnut, chestnut, etc)
Dock/burdock
miners lettuce
wild sorrels

I think dye stuff needs to go into textiles.

Not keen on the grafting.  

I think the mushroom slurry stuff would go into woodland care.  

I like the propagation thing.   What all might be on that list?

I like the propagation thing.   What all might be on that list?

Root crops or those grown from bulb, like daylilies, ramps, catttails, etc should be easy to divide and place elsewhere with minimum continual care
Cactus (prickly pear, indian fig, agave, Cereus, etc)

Digging seedlings that won't survive in their current location(roadside, sidewalks, drainage ditch, dense canopy, etc), then re-planting in the wild.

Ground/mound layering something with low-lying branches? (I think traditional cutting propagation may take too much continual care to be called "foraging" in many cases)

Nicole Alderman wrote:I'm thinking that if we're relying heavily on the Sand plant lists, that we might want to really expand those. It is not easy to harvest a pound of mint!

We have added a lot of stuff to the fresh list in the past few weeks.  But the "Dry" and "Tea" list could use some help...  And all could be longer yet.

My suggestion would be to add some awareness of dangerous "food" that can be foraged by mistake.

Something like: identify X poisonous plants that can be confused with edible ones.

I know basically nothing about foraging, but these badges look quite a lot better than before. I like how it branches out instead of just continuing the sand badge tasks.

And y'all are smart and attractive!

All the suggestions look good.

My 2 cent question -

Under Sacagawea List - collecting 5 pounds of honey without cutting down a tree. How can one do this without disturbing (read decimating) the hive? Depending upon climate and time of year they might not recover in time for winter. Just looking out for my friends.

Would you considering substituting other plant based sweeteners?

Edited to add:

To rob a wild hive typically some smoking material is used to frighten the bees into thinking their hive is on fire, the bees fill themselves with honey in case they need to flee, and are preoccupied and more docile. Normally they live in the hollows of trees, difficult to access and to see what you are doing. While scraping out your honey you could damage or kill the queen or just make a mess of their hive. If it drips out they are now outed to other bees and likely to be robbed.

Three plant based alternatives off the top of my head are stevia, sorghum and honey locust.
And barley malt.

Hi Lee Gee, good questions.  I haven't collected wild honey before but I know it's done.  If anyone can verify that it can or can't be done with the health of the bees in mind, PLEASE comment!!  I was imagining a hollow tree with a hundred pounds of honey in it and that a person could swipe 10 lbs without causing too much undue stress on the hive.  But that's only based on the fantasies in my head.

Other sweeteners are an option. We do have maple syrup on the list.  Are there other forageable sweeteners that we should consider?

Thanks Richard!  For PEP, and I believe PEX in general, the idea is to have a list of artifacts or projects or things you can do to show you have experience with something.  So we're not telling people exactly how to cut down a tree or how to do it safely.  They need to research both the task and how to do it on their own.  The artifact is the completion of the task.  I'll check with Paul on this one but my hunch is that it's not quite what we're after.  It's very very very valid to identify poisonous look-alikes, just not what we want people to have to document.

paul wheaton wrote:I think the mushroom slurry stuff would go into woodland care.  

 Those who came before us are awesome!  I just looked in Woodland Care and it's in the Wood level badge already.  

mycelium
     o enhance garden beds with mycelium
           - photo evidence that it helped in 3 scenarios  

This all looks good.  You are SO smart and attractive!

this may be too much on the "survival" side of foraging, since it destroys the entirety of the living thing, but foraging in Kingdom Animalia:

Clams, mussels, crabs, snails, etc.
Insects
Birds eggs

The mention of Honey gave the idea; and collecting these for food is not quite the same as hunting or trapping.

Thanks Bryan!    

Not to worry Dustin, we do have some hunting in these badges.  So far we have small mammals, birds, fish/shellfish and bigger mammals.  We didn't have bugs or eggs though.  Have to think about that.....

Paul approved the list and it's going live.  Thanks everyone for your input!!!   I'll be putting out more brainstorming threads as we work our way through the PEP list so keep your eyes open for opportunities to provide input on other badges.

This thread is now locked.