Event #1836

Foraging for Letterboxes

Day Pond State Park, Day Pond Rd, Colchester, CT

Registered Boxes: All Traditional HH/Cootie/Flea Postal LTC Event Box Traveler Other

Starts	Sat September 17, 2011 10:00am
Ends	Sat September 17, 2011 4:00pm
Owner	The 3 Foragers
Admins	The 3 Foragers
Signups	163/300
Location	Day Pond State Park, Day Pond Rd, Colchester, CT View Map
Add to Calendar	Google calendar ICS file (e.g. Outlook, iCal, etc.)

Description

Come join The 3 Foragers in southeastern Connecticut for a day of kid-friendly foraging talks, walks, and letterbox hunts. Day Pond State Park in Colchester, CT has a wonderful covered pavilion and a small beach for toe-dipping. We'll try to supply the fun and games for the kids, you provide the kids. Robert and Karen will lead scheduled walks around the park and have a display of seasonal wild edibles to discuss. We will hide some fun letterboxes in the park, and there are some other super boxes nearby.

We hope to have an assortment of potluck snacks available. More details to come. . .

06/23/2011 Update
We have started carving boxes for the event, and would love to see some other contributions for carves to be hidden temporarily at the park. Did your grandma make jam from wild grapes? Did a weird uncle from Europe make some syrups from flowers? Any hunters or fishermen? Care to carve a box regarding hunting. fishing, foraging, or cooking and preserving wild foods? Contact us!

We have picked the site for the foraging walk, it is off site, about 6 miles from the event in the Salmon River State forest. There is limited parking at the site, so we encourage carpooling for the walking/foraging tour. There are also at least 10 boxes in that immediate area, so the drive will be worth it. We'll give a head's up as to what clues you will need to bring for those boxes later. Walking/foraging tour will start at 1:00, after lunch.

Here's hoping for fantastic weather in September!

Aug 8, 2011: Tabletops and LTCs
We would love to have people bring their tabletop boxes for the event. I hope to snag the lovely covered pavilion filled with picnic tables for the day.

A request for LTC trading has been made, please bring yours to share/trade/show off!

We have 42 new stamps to hide for the event, including a few wonderful contributions of stamps from others. All but a series of 10 will be permanent. There are plenty of other stamps at the secondary location of the Wild Edible Walk, which is off of River Road, along the Blackledge River. I hope to put together a scrapbook of foods and dishes we have cooked with our wild edibles, which is a preview of the display that will be up at the Otis Library in Norwich during the month of October. We will have a few wild foods to sample at the potluck, and will be selling some wild foraged fruit and flower jellies. And, if you find something cool or odd in the woods while hiking, bring a bit back to the main table and we'll try to identify it for you.

Aug 22, 2011: Update
The bathrooms with running water will be available during the event, as well as outhouses. We hope to get the pavilion without having to pay for a reservation, and there are 2 wood-burning chimneys at this pavilion. Contributions of wood would be awesome! There are also grills at the site for hotdogs or some grilling, just remember some charcoal briquets. The small beach has no lifeguard, but the kids can still splash around. We'll have bubbles, balls, and some sand toys to play with. Robert will set up his camo hunting blind for them to fool around in. Dogs on leashes are welcome at the park, except for the beach. Fishing is allowed with proper licenses.

Robert will try to make a venison stew, but it will be limited. We could use bowls and spoons, or hot cups and spoons contributed instead of a potluck item. We will also bring some sumac-ade (Indian lemonade), small biscuit and ramps sandwiches, and some sweet foraged jam dessert bars. Please update your potluck contribution on the list. We hope to have a good time with the kids, so kid-friendly food is a good idea too.

Parking may be an issue, the spaces are limited. There is no fee to enter the park, and the road to the park is a dead end. Some people may have to park on the other side of the pond, but we encourage carpooling. At the secondary site, the parking is SUPER limited, so again we encourage carpooling to the off-site foraging walk. Here's hoping for good, autumn weather.

Sep 7, 2011: Update 9-7-11
We booked the pavilion and are taking donations to help with costs. Any amount is appreciated!

Event Patches are in! They are beautiful, and you can get yours for $3 each. I have 110 available, so let me know if you want to reserve one now.

Box hiding is going slowly due to school being cancelled with the tropical storm, park closure and cleanup. I'll be out later this week to hide some more. There will be 2 stamps to "earn": by playing a nut identification game, and by trying to Stump the Foragers. Find a nut, berry or mushroom while out hiking that we can't ID and you'll get the stamp!

Looking forward to the event, Karen

Sep 14, 2011: Final Update
Most of the clues for the stamps in the park are now listed. Please print them at home, I'll have a limited amount available to use at the event. The clues for the Crazy Silly Nuts WOM boxes are only available from the main table on Saturday, along with the BONUS trophy stamp and the Stump A Forager Challenge stamp. More details at the main table. For travelers, use GPS address 50 Day Pond Road, Colchester, CT.

We'll bring some firewood to burn on this lovely autumn day (so says Scot Haney), and any more firewood contributions would be greatly appreciated. Marshmallows! The bathrooms with the flush toilets will be available, along with some pit toilets. Beach is open for splashing, we'll have some sand toys to play with.

Event patches are still available for $3.00. I will also have a contribution jar out for any donations to help us with costs of renting the pavilion. Robert will also be selling some of our jams and jellies made from foraged fruits and flowers, like wineberry, lilac, grape, Japanese knotweed, violet, and rosehip. They will be $4.00 a jar.

The menu is shaping up nicely, we'll have some sumac-ade, sweet jelly shortbread bars, mini biscuit sandwiches, and Robert will be making fresh, hot venison stew (we did not hunt the deer, but got it from a friend who never lost power and therefore freezer capacity during the hurricane).

All tabletop boxes are welcome, as are LTCs for trade and showing. I see some new names and faces signed up, this should be a fun opportunity to meet new boxers! I also see lots of kids signed up with families, hooray! This is a good, small park with many places to explore in a small area. There are a few shorter series for them to hike, too. The off-site foraging walk will take place off of River Road in Colchester, less than 4 miles away by car at 2:00 PM. Signups will be at the main table, and I hope to carpool over at 1:45 PM. The walk and talk will be short and sweet and we'll be back by 3:00 PM for final boxing, exchanging, chatting, and eating. See you all Saturday!

Sep 17, 2011: Last minute update
I hope the chilly nights have helped knock down some of the mosquitos. Bring bug spray if you are hiking!

Added Mushroom Hunting Tools last minute, limited time series of 5 at the end of the Salon River Trail North Loop/Gravel road/Salmom River Trail South Loop intersection.

Will have limited sets of clues at the event. See you all there!

Sep 18, 2011: Housekeeping. . .
Tessie, I have your silver serving spoon.

Nittany, I thiny Zack left behind his brither's logbook in my car, alligator print on one side, green dots on the other.

Somebody left behind a stack of mini square inkpads, rainbow colors.

We were so tired at the end, but happy to see so many people having fun, hiking, eating, stamping, and chatting. Extra thanks for my clue pre-hikers, Hez, CThiker, and Bungalow Boxer with Donutz. Thanks to everyone for being generous and donating to cover costs, thanks for the potluck food, and thanks for coming! The 3 Foragers

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Total signups:163

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