A Private, Offline Foraging Journal & Secret-Patch Map
Forager's Field Notes is a local-first foraging field journal and secret-patch tracker. Drop a pin, log a find in two taps, and the app remembers where and when so it can nudge you back at the right time next season. It is a journal, a learning tool, and a safety companion — not a plant or mushroom identification app. There is no account and no server, so your secret spots never leave the device and can never be silently wiped.
What it does:
- Fast find journal — log your own common name, category, quantity/yield, habitat, notes, photos, date, and an on-demand GPS pin in a tap or two
- Patches (secret spots) — save a location once and attach finds to it, on an offline schematic patch map that works in airplane mode
- Confirm-Don't-Identify safety layer — a guided checklist and lookalike cards that help you rule a find out; the app never says "edible" and you make the call
- Offline lookalike field guide — curated "deadly twin" comparison cards for commonly confused pairs; education, not identification
- Deterministic intelligence (Pro) — seasonality forecasts, patch-return reminders, and a foraging-year recap built from your own logs, fully on-device
- Offline & local-first — no account, no cloud, no ads, no background location; your pins and photos never leave the phone
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
How It Works
📒 Fast Find Journal
Log a find in a tap or two: your own common name (free text), category, quantity or yield, habitat, notes, photos, the date, and an on-demand GPS pin. Structured capture that actually saves — no more screenshotting your own photos to keep them. The foraging log a passive notes app was never built to be.
📍 Patches — Your Secret Spots
Save a location once and every future find attaches to it. The patch map is a tile-free, schematic offline map — nothing to pre-download and forget, fully usable in airplane mode forever. Pins are captured on demand only and never leave the device. There is no background location, ever.
🛡️ Confirm-Don't-Identify Safety Gate
This is the whole point. When you log a find the app never says "edible." It runs a deterministic multi-factor checklist (spore print, gills vs pores, ring/volva, habitat, bruising…), surfaces a lookalike confrontation card ("Did you rule out the toxic twin?"), and requires you to acknowledge that you — not the app — own the decision. The confidence is one you built. Free forever, never paywalled.
📖 Offline Lookalike Field Guide
Curated "deadly twin" comparison cards for commonly confused edible/toxic pairs, available with no signal. It teaches you to disqualify a find by confronting its dangerous lookalikes. This is education and a learning aid — not a species identifier and never a verdict on what is safe to eat.
🍂 Deterministic Intelligence
Pro turns your own history into a seasonality forecast ("your chanterelle spots typically come in weeks 26–32 — you're in the window"), patch-return reminders ("last June 30 you found morels at Cedar Creek — time to check"), and a shareable foraging-year recap. Pure rule-based, on-device logic — no AI model, no network, no key.
🔒 Private & Local-First
No account, no login, no cloud. Every find, patch, pin, photo, and note lives in a local database on your phone. Your secret spots never leave the device, there are no ads, and there is no background location. The privacy and offline polish other foraging apps promise and miss.
A Look Inside
Made for Real Foragers
🍄 The Patch-Keeper
- Save a season's worth of secret spots that stay private on the device
- Attach every find to its patch and watch a map that works with no signal
- Get nudged back at the right time next year by your own logged history
🌿 The Careful Beginner
- Lean on the confirm-don't-identify checklist and lookalike cards to learn to rule finds out
- Build a confidence you own — the app never decides edibility for you
- Keep the always-visible safety disclaimer and field guide free, forever
📡 The Off-Grid Wanderer
- Log finds and drop pins fully offline — airplane mode, no grace period, ever
- No background location and no GPS drain; pins are captured on demand only
- No account and no server to fail on an update or a new phone
Forager's Field Notes+
The core — the fast find journal, generous patches and pins, the offline patch map, and the entire safety layer (the confirm-don't-identify gate, the lookalike field guide, and the always-visible disclaimer) — is genuinely useful free, with no card needed to start. Forager's Field Notes+ adds the 100% on-device, deterministic intelligence layer: seasonality forecasts, patch-return reminders, your foraging-year recap, unlimited patches, and bulk offline-map region caching. The safety layer is free for everyone and is never paywalled. Billing is store-managed — cancel anytime in the App Store or Google Play.
Annual
Best value, with a 7-day free trial — works out to about $1.67/month, billed yearly. Undercuts the $50–60/yr incumbents.
Monthly
Flexible month-to-month access to Forager's Field Notes+.
Lifetime
A single one-time purchase — no subscription, yours to keep. The trust play for foragers done with surprise fees.
Prices may vary by region and are shown in the app at the time of purchase. All three options unlock the same Forager's Field Notes+ (ffn_pro) features. The 7-day free trial is offered on the annual plan only. The lifetime option is a one-time, non-renewing purchase. Manage or cancel a subscription anytime in your device's App Store or Google Play subscription settings. See our Terms and EULA for full subscription details.
Privacy First — Your Patches Stay on the Phone
Forager's Field Notes is built local-first. Here's exactly how it works:
- No account, no cloud, no server. You don't sign up or log in. There is no backend that receives your data — nothing to leak and nothing to fail on an update or a new phone.
- Your patches and pins never leave the device. Finds, patches, GPS pins, photos, and notes are stored only in a local database (SQLite) on your phone. There is no background location — pins are captured on demand only.
- No tracking, no ads, no analytics. The app does not use advertising identifiers, cross-app tracking, or third-party analytics SDKs. There is nothing to sell, because your data stays on your phone.
- Insights are deterministic and on-device. Seasonality forecasts, patch-return reminders, and the recap are rule-based on-device logic. There is no LLM, no AI model, no model download, and no network or key — identical input gives identical output.
- One billing helper. The only data that ever leaves your phone is purchase/subscription data, handled by Apple, Google, and RevenueCat to validate Forager's Field Notes+. They never receive your finds, patches, pins, or photos.
For complete details, see our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and EULA.