Foraging

Description

Foraging is the skill used when searching a grass tile for berries and some herbs, vegetables and nuts.

Foraging is also used to find branches on grass tiles and "Rummage" on rock or cliff tiles to find low quality iron rocks or rock shards, which can be used to create low quality crude tools.

It is believed that a higher foraging skill increases the likelihood of finding something.

Sometimes you may get a botanizing item even when foraging.

Eating foraged food directly, raw and uncooked, will solve starvation, but they are more nutritional when used in cooking.

"This area looks picked clean.": There is nothing to be found on the tile.
"You find nothing edible.": There is nothing to be foraged, but you will find something botanizing.
"This area looks picked clean. New plants and herbs will grow over time so check back later": There is nothing to be found on this tile at the moment.

A grass tile can be foraged every 24 real hours. It is believed that the timer is triggered by an attempt, and not by an actual item being found. Therefore if nothing is found, try another tile instead of repeatedly trying the same one. Yet tiles not foraged or botanized for a long time can still be empty.
Tiles that are not foraged for long periods of time (a week or longer) have a higher chance of giving something than tiles that are checked 24 to 36 hours apart.
It also seems that there is a higher chance of getting something if the tile has flowers on it.
Higher skill reduces the action timer, increase the average QL of the items found, and increase the number of items foraged.
At skill level 21, you can choose what to botanize (Anything, Vegetables, Resources, and Berries).
It is possible to both forage and botanize on the same tile as these actions are on separate timers.