Forage - Wild Free Food [iPhone]

Version 3 has a new Search facility that uses Machine Learning to generate possible results.

You take a photo of a plant you are trying to identify. You submit it to the the Search Engine and it provides possible foods it could be. Much easier to use than the older search facility. You can take multiple photos and see all results provided to aid your assessment of what the food is.

How many times have you been out and about in the countryside looked at a plant and wondered was it edible or not? Well, if you are into the idea of free food then probably quite a lot. But how many times have you had the foraging guidebook on you? The answer, if you are me, is never when you see something interesting that you think you know what it is but are not sure. But, how many times have you had your mobile phone on you? Probably every time. And finally after finding that special spot where the item grows how many times have you then been unable to find it again? Probably quite a lot. It could be in the middle of a wood or large wasteground.

So what is the solution? This App that's what. The App combines a list of the most common wild foods available in the UK (many of these plants grow outside of the UK as well), images of those foods and information about the food such as leaf, flower and stem identification information, habitat, season, uses and most importantly any warnings about the plant. You can also record the locations of the foods found on the Maps so that you can find them again.

Each food has the following information: Description, Habitat, Season, Uses and Warnings; a minimum of two images to aid in identification; notes to record your information about the food; a set of user specified locations shown on the Map.

Each Food can be identified using the images and the description. Once identified you can also record the location of the food found.

Location use the inbuilt GPS or WiFi to locate you on the Map. Obviously, the GPS can work anywhere whereas WiFi location is less accurate and not always available (especially in the middle of a wood). Maps require an internet connection and a working data plan.

You can record you own notes about a food in general and you can also record notes about individual saved food locations.

There's also a Search facility to help you identify a food. You may be looking at a plant with white flowers or a toothed leaf or both. You can use the Search to look for those foods with white flowers or toothed leaves or white flowers and toothed leaves. The list of foods changes when you search to show only those that satisfy the search. Using the right combination of search terms could reveal an exact match.