Stardew Valley/Foraging

Foraging is an important activity in Stardew Valley, and is one of the few activities that doesn't rely much on tools or player stamina. Particularly in the early game, Foraging is a great way to earn an income, giftable items, and stamina recovery items. Foraging is a good activity for players interested in exploring the game world, or for players low on stamina but with lots of time remaining in a day.

The mechanics of foraging it pretty simple; just spot something unusual on the ground and go pick it up. The items you can collect this way vary by season, and some items appear more frequently than others. Also, some items appear in some areas but not others. If you don't pick up an item, it will usually persist a few days, but no longer. Clearing rocks and weeks allows more area for items to appear, to it pays to clean up debris.

Seasonal Items

Most common forage items are seasonal, meaning you can only find them one season of the year.

Spring items

Daffodil - Bus Stop, Pelican Town, Railroad
Dandelion - Bus Stop, W. Pelican Town, Railroad
Leek - Bus Stop, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad
Wild Horseradish - W. Pelican Town, Mountains, Backwoods

Summer items

Spice Berry - Bus Stop, W. Pelican Town, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad
Grape - Bus Stop, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad

You can also grow Grapes as a crop.

Sweet Pea - Bus Stop, W. Pelican Town, Pelican Town, Railroad
Wild Plum - Bus Stop, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad

Fall items

Common Mushroom - W. Pelican Town, Mountains, Backwoods
Wild Plum - Bus Stop, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad
Hazelnut - Bus Stop, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad
Blackberry - W. Pelican Town, Pelican Town, Railroad

Winter items

Holly - Bus Stop, W. Pelican Town, Pelican Town, Mountains, Backwoods
Crystal Fruit - Bus Stop, W. Pelican Town, Pelican Town, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad
Crocus - Bus Stop, W. Pelican Town, Pelican Town, Mountains, Backwoods, Railroad

In addition, you can dig up Snow Yam and Winter Root by digging at roots.

Seasonal Seeds

There are four types of seeds from which you can grow most of these items, one type for each season. You can craft a set of 10 by combining four different items, and you can obtains larger sets as rewards for completing Community Center bundles. Plant and grow them as with regular seeds, the result will be a random assortment of Forage items.

Pelican Beach

Pelican Beach has its own set of items, various shellfish which wash up on shore.

Clam
Cockle
Mussel
Oyster
Rainbow Shell (Summer only)
Nautilus Shell (Winter only)

The tidal pool

There is a broken bridge connecting the main Pelican Beach area to a tidal pool to the east. Repairing the bridge is relatively easy, you need 300 Wood. (This may seem like a lot at the beginning of the game, but later on it should be no problem. You can find Coral and Sea Urchins there; these are difficult to obtain otherwise.

Wild berry seasons

In mid-spring you may notice that many of bushes have berries growing on then. Click on a bush to shake the berries off and collect them. They are Salmonberries, a convenient source of energy. Similarly in early fall, you can find wild Blackberries the same way. You can also grow Blackberries as a crop. Unlike farm crops, wild berries only appear in normal quality. The in game television show Livin' Off The Land mentions these seasons when they arrive.

Wild Onions

In spring, Wild Onions grow in W. Pelican Town. To find them, cross the bridge southwest of Marnie's house to a small island in the middle of the river. Then cross another bridge south to a large section of land east of the river. There are four sandy area here where you can find the onions. Unlike regular forage items, you have to pull these out of the ground instead of just picking them up. Later in the game, you can learn how to clean the onions better to get more value from them.

Mines

You can find Forage items in the mines, sometimes lying on the ground and sometimes by digging at soft ground. These include:

Red Mushrooms
Purple Mushrooms
Cave Carrots

The Secret Woods

When you've upgraded you axe to the point that it can chop through fallen trees, you can clear the path in the northwest corner of W. Pelican Town. The path leads to the Secret Woods. There are several Forage items you can find there, some of which are difficult to obtain any other way.

Wild Horseradish
Morel (spring only)
Fiddlehead Fern (summer only)
Chanterelle (fall only)
Holly (winter only)
Common Mushroom (spring and fall)
Red Mushroom (summer and fall)

The Farm Cave

At a certain point in the game, Demetrius offers to set up some specimens in the cave next to your farmhouse. You can choose either a mushroom box, in which case you can harvest six mushrooms from the cave every day, or fruit bats, in which case you can harvest various pieces of fruit which occasionally appear. Both options give the product every other day. There are more reliable ways of obtaining fruit in the game, but this seems to be the easiest way to obtain certain rare mushrooms, so the mushroom box will be the better choice for most people.

Sap

Sap is listed as a Forage item, but instead of picking it up off the ground it's a by-product of chopping trees. It may also be obtained by using a Tapper on a Mahogany Tree or killing any slime besides Big Slimes.