Forager’s Table: Four Seasons

The foragers are back at Grandma Ona’s farm at the edge of the Dzūkija forests, and the table is piled high: porcini, chanterelles, orange birch boletes, lingonberries, cranberries and apples tumble onto the linen cloth – and everything slowly starts to go mouldy. Drag each find with one finger into the right crate. Wormy, mouldy or frost-bitten food, leaves and twigs go to the compost, and so does every mushroom we do not eat: a fly agaric, a false chanterelle or a bitter bolete in a food crate means “Not for the pot!” – and the day is over.

The autumn chapter has thirty quick days, each a minute or two long. Five kinds of weather change the rules: rain makes food go mouldy faster, fog hides every find until you pick it up, wind blows in leaves and brings things two at a time, frost bites the late harvest, and a sunny day lets you breathe. Every new species is shown on a “New today – look closely” card, Grandma Ona has an order every day, and each day earns one to three stars. The earnings build a drying rack and a cellar: they take part of the day’s harvest, and after a few real hours it is worth three times as much.

It is a game, not a mushroom guide – never eat a mushroom you know from a game. The game is in English and Lithuanian, works offline, needs no account and has no in-app purchases. A small banner is shown only on the farm screen and the day’s result card, never while you sort; after the first five days, three new days a day are free, and a short optional ad can open three more.