In recent months I have found myself surprisingly spellbound by studying, searching, and subsisting on the wild plants, fungi, and seaweeds (it turns out they're actually a polyphyletic group of macroscopic protists instead of just marine plants) that grow around where I live (southwest UK). For now, fortune favours my family with fields and forests full of fresh fragrant fruits. But is it too good to be true? Is this in fact a foolish fad, ready to be ruined at random by a ransack of rancidity and retching?

Non-exhaustive examples of foul fates include severe suffering, disabling injury, or death arising from:

• Gastrointestinal infections via ingested pathogens or parasites aka 'food poisoning' (e.g. campylobacter, norovirus, liver fluke)

• Ingested toxins aka regular poisoning, whether natural (e.g. death cap, hemlock water-dropwort) or artificial (e.g. toxic metals, pesticides)

• Physical defence mechanisms of plants (e.g. thorns, spines)

• Physical accidents (e.g. falling off a cliff, drowning in a river, whacking my head on a rock)

• Getting lost or stuck in the wilderness

• Conflict with people (e.g. land owners, gangs, serial killers)

• Conflict with animals (e.g. cattle, deer, adders, wasps)

The foul fate should occur during or plausibly due to a foraging session to qualify. For suffering alone to qualify as a foul fate, it must be severe enough that I regret ever pursuing the hobby. For reference, the numerous nettle stings and light bramble thorn scratches on my legs and hands I received recently don't qualify, but a thorn hypothetically scratching or piercing my eyeball almost certainly would.

My current main information sources on identification/edibility are:

• The Forager's Calendar by John Wright

• Collins Gem Food for Free by Richard Mabey

• Wikipedia

• iNaturalist

• Wild Food UK

Things I've already successfully foraged free of foul fates:

• Cherries

• Strawberries

• Blackcurrants

• Blackberries

• Water mint

Things I've spotted but haven't tried yet (often due to not being right time of year):

• Fibre, vitamins, and minerals stuff

  • Fruits

    • Blueberries*

    • Elderberries

    • Apples

    • Hawthorn berries

    • Cherry plums

  • Veg plants

    • Sea beets

    • Stinging nettles

    • Onions

    • Dandelions

    • Leeks

  • Fungi

    • Oak moss* (actually a lichen, don't ask)

  • Seaweeds

    • Bladderwrack

    • Gutweed

• Proteins and fats stuff (seeds, nuts, and beans)

  • Stinging nettle seeds

  • Poppy seeds

  • Beech nuts

  • Hazelnuts

  • Acorns

  • Chestnuts

• Starchy carbohydrate stuff (cereals and tubers)

  • Oats

  • Silverweed*

* Suspected but not yet certain identification

Things I haven't spotted yet but am familiar with and looking out for:

• Fibre, vitamins, and minerals stuff

  • Fruits

    • Raspberries

    • Cranberries

    • Plums/sloes

  • Veg plants

    • Watercress

    • Garlic/ramsons

  • Fungi

    • Giant puffballs

    • Common puffballs

    • Hedgehog mushrooms

    • Chicken of the woods

    • Beefsteak fungus

    • Summer truffles

  • Seaweeds

    • Dulse

    • Pepper dulse

    • Oar weed

    • Sugar kelp

• Proteins and fats stuff (seeds, nuts, and beans)

  • Radish seeds

  • Sunflower seeds

  • Walnuts

• Starchy carbohydrates stuff (cereals and tubers)

  • Pignuts

  • Common reed

  • Bulrush