How to Use what3words for Foraging
- Bev
- Jun 1
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 28
In this article I explain how I use what3words for foraging. what3words is a system developed to pinpoint an exact location anywhere on earth. Whilst the what3words app was originally developed for very different reasons, it works perfectly for when you're out and about in the countryside.
When you become aware of the fruits and flowers available to forage through the seasons, you realise how the plants and hedgerows return year after year no matter what. I find that very reassuring. That no matter what is going on in my life, Mother Nature keeps on keeping on.
I use the what3words app when out walking. I make a note of where I see seasonal fruits and flowers for when I'm in the area next time. This means I always know where I have a good chance of finding ingredients to make wine, mead, cider and liqueurs when they're in season. I say 'a good chance' because sometimes an elder has a year off from flowering or berrying, or the hedgerow has been cut back, or another forager beat me to it! But most of the time the app works brilliantly. Even if the fruits are not ready to pick now, the app helps me return to them when they are. So whilst it was originally developed for very different reasons, what3words is an enormous help for foragers.
Table of contents:
What is What3Words?
what3words is a system that gives every 3 metre square location on earth a unique three-word address which is easy to say, and easy to share. It enables the emergency services to find someone needing help in a place without a defined address, such as the middle of a field or up a mountain. And it is free to use.
I used to only use the app to communicate our exact business location to couriers who used it. The whatwords location which brings couriers directly to our door is more helpful and accurate than simply giving them the address. Not least of all because our post code leads them to the residential care home car park located behind the property, rather than to us. And when you live on a road that has house names rather than numbers, the couriers really appreciate it.
what3words is used by many emergency services in the UK to identify locations with a far greater degree of accuracy than using a postal address, or giving directions. This means no time is wasted trying to find the location which is obviously important in many situations. As well as this, what3words is just brilliant when you're trying to find the exact location you've been to before.
So whilst being able to find these damsons again next year doesn't really constitute an emergency, the app is proving to be popular with foragers.
Brewing with the Seasons
As you walk in the countryside through the year, you may stumble upon a new foraging opportunity somewhere - a wild plum tree, a sloe bush, a patch of meadowsweet. It might be that you don't have a bag with you, or don't have the time to pick them. Or maybe you have identified a berry bush, but the berries aren't yet ready to pick. I used to think I would remember where that bush was. I never did.
Enter what3words.
What3words and Foraging
Sometimes you are in the perfect situation where you stumble upon some fruit or flowers, you have a foraging bag with you. As the years pass, you will become more familiar with the fruits and flowers in your area and may find yourself planning what you'd like to make next year. You might even have an annual wine making plan.
These annual rituals are such a blessing, and really keep you tuned in to the seasons. I always plan, for example, to make Elderflower Champagne. This is an awful lot easier if you know where the elderflowers are going to be because you have seen them, rather than having to start searching for a tree or bush when the mood takes you. And if that tree is in the middle of a field, a postcode isn't much use really.
So these days, I use What3words to return to the local elderflowers each year unless it's obvious because I go there every year. And when I find a new Sloe Bush, I make a note of the exact location for future reference in the What3Words app. So I can return when the sloes are ready or, if has already fruited, I can find it again next year. For sloes be gold, I tell you.
If the sloe bush hasn't got sloes yet, I know to return to it later in the year. And if it goes on to bear fruit then happy days, for sloe gin here we come.
How to use what3words
Download the what3words app and record where you are, and what you have found. what3words will then lead you back to that exact spot whenever you like.
This also works perfectly when you're walking in the spring and identify, say, the flowers on a blackthorn bush. When you return in the autumn, with any luck it will be a bush covered in sloe berries.
The app is ideal for anything you gather in the countryside. So you can, for example, keep a note of where you find wild garlic as it will grow back in the same place every year. It's also great in mushroom season, as many mushrooms will also re-appear in the same place.
Make sure before you pick any mushrooms that you are certain you have identified them correctly, with the help of an excellent book like Geoff Dann's Edible Mushrooms. Better still: if you aren't a seasoned forager, go with a human person who is experienced and knows what they're doing.
What if I have No Phone Signal and/or No Data?
No phone signal, no data, or both? No problem. Without phone signal, the app functions the same way as when you have no data connection: you can view the location of any what3words address you enter. You can also navigate to it. More about using the app offline from what3words' CEO Chris Sheldrick here.
What you of course can't do in that situation is text the what3words location of this amazing bush covered in juicy sloes to all your friends (if you're feeling incredibly generous). You will need signal and data for that.
Combining different seasonal Fruits and Flowers in Winemaking
Sometimes you'll want to make a wine with a combination of fruits that are not in season together, or fruits that are not currently available. You may know where all the trees and bushes are that will bear fruit, because you saved their locations last year. You may already have picked some of the fruits, but not all because they're not ready.
Having a freezer helps enormously. Simply bag up your blackberries when you pick them and freeze them until the apples (or whatever) are in season.
Freezing fruit in this way can help to break down the fibres releasing extra juice which is an added bonus. In fact some recipes specifically advise you to freeze the fruit before you make wine with it for this very reason.
I use a vacuum sealer to freeze fruits and flowers, which saves a huge amount of space in the freezer in high season when there always seems to be something to pick.
My Hedgerow Wine Making Journal contains a section on foraging including a calendar listing the more easily identifiable fruits and flowers with which you can make delicious wines, meads, ciders and liqueurs. You can find my journal here.
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