Passport
A simple habit that makes every other safety practice in this topic actually work.
This is a small rule that makes everything else in this topic
actually function. If you eat three new foraged foods at once
and have a reaction, you have no way of knowing which one
caused it — and no clear way to know which to avoid in future.
When you're building your foraging diet, bring in one new plant
or mushroom, wait a few days of normal eating, and only then
introduce the next new thing. This isn't about rigid timing —
it's about giving yourself a clear enough picture to actually
learn from your own body's responses.
Even a plant you're certain is safe deserves this treatment
the first time, exactly as covered in section 7.3 with patch
testing. Confidence in identification and confidence in your
own body's response are two different things, and only one
of them can be assumed in advance.
The notebook habit from section 1.4 is useful here too —
a simple record of what you tried, when, and how your body
responded builds a personal reference over time, and makes it
much easier to spot a pattern if something does cause trouble.
If you've followed this rule and still have a reaction,
you'll know exactly what caused it — which makes it much easier
to respond appropriately and to know what to avoid going forward.
We'll cover what to do if something goes wrong in the next section.