My Standard Foraging Pack

Kit I Take When Foraging for Free Food

I was thinking about a new addition to my foraging gear/foraging pack, and I thought it might be worth sharing the rest too.

Of course, when I say my standard foraging pack, I mean my standard walking pack. After all, you wouldn’t want to come across a bumper patch of something special but not be able to take advantage of it, would you?

• Small rucksack.
  Obviously you need something to carry your bits and pieces, and I prefer to not have my pockets stuffed full.
• Camera/Mobile Phone.
  This is a personal choice. We all know how good the cameras are on mobile phones nowadays. However, I prefer to have a small digital camera, with optical zoom so I can catch wildlife in the distance without losing the quality that digital zoom does. I have my phone too, which I also find pretty invaluable with its identification apps.
• Knife.
  I like to think that a clean cut will do a plant less damage than a tear, so even if I don’t have my bushcraft knife with me, I always have my little multi-tool knife (sharpened).
• Bags.
  A few old carrier bags in my rucksack means that I can collect various things and keep them all separate in my rucksack. Ziploc bags might be better, but carrier bags are always lying around. I also appreciate that bags aren’t ideal for some mushrooms etc.; I’ve found that as long as you can open the bags in the boot of the car, or get them home within an hour or two, then it’s usually fine.
• Walking stick/branch puller.
  I have a favourite walking pole, which has a 90 degree handle on it. Not only for walking, but the extendable nature and the handle makes an excellent puller for those goodies just out of reach.
• Water bottle and/or flask.
  I always have a full water bottle as it’s easy to start getting dehydrated when you’re out for a few hours (even in the wind
• Blanket.
  This one’s purely for comfort. If I want to sit down for a minute or two with my flask, and I’m not wearing waterproofs, the blanket is quite handy for keeping my dry and warm. Of course it would be handy in an emergency too.

New Items

• And the newest item for my foraging pack, an extra bag, or bin-bag.
  Much though I hate the thought of picking up other people’s rubbish; I find that I hate the thought of leaving it behind even more.

Other bits

There’s also a handful of bits and pieces I take that I would class as foraging gear; That’s just stuff I’d have on any walk. It includes: Tissues, hand wash gel, pain killers, plasters, dressing and bandage, whistle, and compass.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone has anything different in their foraging pack?