What I Learned from Wandering the Forest with Fable Food Co.

For 90,000 years, we humans were hunter-gatherers. Using our senses, we integrated with nature, foraged, and took food from the land. But, that was a long time ago. Today, food production is mechanized, scientifically engineered, and, often, highly processed. We approach meals as consumers, not foragers, and make decisions based on convenience, rather than nutritional benefit. For many of us, the closest we come to our ancestors’ ancient way of life is “foraging '' the aisles at Whole Foods, peering through refrigerator glass at snickerdoodle hummus , pumpkin-flavored beer, and boxed water.?

I care a great deal about food. However, as an urbanite, I also understand how easy it is to lose touch with what we eat, forget how our choices impact the environment, or overlook the connectedness of life. That's why my recent experience, foraging with Fable, was so important.

Fable Food Co . is the creation of Michael Fox , Jim Fuller , and Chris McLoghlin , three mushroom-loving rebels who set out to create a plant-based meat alternative using natural, whole food ingredients with minimal processing. In early 2020, I had Michael as a guest on On The Pass, Hotspot ep. 10 . During our conversation, Michael explained how he’d been a vegetarian for years and had recently become a vegan for health, environmental, and ethical reasons. Then, after the closure of his previous startup, Shoes of Prey, he saw an opportunity. “The idea was to create a meat alternative out of natural, healthy whole food ingredients,” he told me. “Ground beef had already been replicated. So, I thought: can I do another kind of meat?”

Michael and his team set out to find a different base material that could be used for replicating the taste and texture of pulled pork. In December 2019, they launched Fable’s first product, a non-GMO pulled pork meat-alternative made from two-thirds Shiitake mushrooms. Last year, the company began doing business in Australia, Singapore, and the UK and formed a close collaboration with Heston Blumenthal (6 Michelin star holder, celebrity chef-proprietor of The Fat Duck , World’s Best Restaurant 2005).

Since the company’s launch , I’d been intrigued by the idea of a mushroom-based meat alternative with minimal processing. My issue with most meat alternatives is that they are often highly processed and not always nutritionally dense. And so, when Michael came to L.A. and invited me to the Fable Forage and Feast Tour — an experiential marketing event celebrating Fable’s entry into the US market — I was very enthusiastic.

I set out early that Saturday morning, traveled north up the coast from Venice, into Malibu, then turned inland to drive along the narrow, one-way roads that lead deep into Topanga Canyon. If you haven’t been to Topanga, it’s a wild little outpost, just 30 minutes from LA proper, that’s long been a haven for chicken farms, small mountainside vineyards, dusty switchback trails, and the California hippies who love them.?

For the event, Fable had reserved a small farmhouse on a hill with a beautiful view of the canyons. On arrival, I joined an intimate group of chefs, food writers, plant-based enthusiasts, and friends of Fable. Outside, we sat together and listened as Brando, a Topanga local (and new member of the Fable team), shared about the local forest, his passion for fungi, and his keen sense of environmental awareness passed down from his father. Then, we got moving. Following Brando’s lead, we walked Topanga’s winding trails and wandered the woods, foraging for various types of mushrooms. Along the way, Fable co-founder Jim Fuller , a fine-dining chef-turned-Mycologist (Mushroom Scientist), shared details about each mushroom we discovered, the science behind fungi, and their unique health properties.?

“The more time you spend with a specific mushroom the more you learn and understand its characteristics,” Jim explained, “and don’t mistake it for the lookalikes or imposters who could potentially be poisonous.”

After exploring the forest, we hiked back to the house where Jim led us through a fun, relaxed, non-pretentious cooking demonstration where each guest could try mushrooms in stews and stir-fries. Jim’s technique for cooking mushrooms deviated from traditional methods. Instead of using fat or oil, he boiled the mushroom with water (something a french culinary education would balk at). Afterward, he added a bit of olive oil and salt.?

The results were incredible.

Dense, juicy, meat-like: Fable’s umami flavor was better than the meat-alternatives I’d had before. It’s also packed with nutrients. Raw shiitake mushrooms are rich sources of anit-oxidents, protein, B vitamins, dietary fibers and minerals. They’re also medicinal. In fact, a 2015 study suggested that regular consumption of shiitake can result in improved immunity as Fungal polysaccharides alert our bodies when we’ve consumed a fungal property and help us mount a positive immune response.?

“Mushrooms aren’t plants,” Jim said at one point, to my surprise. “The two share many similarities (both plants and fungi have cell walls), but mushrooms are actually more similar to animals than plants.” Whereas, plants make their nutrition from a harmonious relationship with our sun, mushrooms get it from dead and decaying organic matter on the forest floor.

Jim talks about mushrooms like a scientist and cooks like a masterchef. While we ate, he explained how fungi make their own food by collecting carbs and other nutrients from the plants, animals, or decomposed matter around them; and how, like us, mushrooms depend on the other living things around them for sustenance.?

The foraging was fun; the Fable tasted incredible. That afternoon as I drove back down Topanga’s winding roads, I felt grateful for friends like Michael who have searched for and found creative solutions that align with their health, environmental, and ethical concerns. At the same time, I also began to think about what foraging might have to teach us at our current moment in history: a moment when livestock uses almost 80% of agricultural land and one-third of global arable land is used to grow feed .

Writing in the Guardian , Miles Erving discusses the evolutionary importance of foraging. “[F]oraging is no mere metaphor for connectedness, but the means by which species integrate with their surroundings. There’s more to it than the aesthetics of the back-to-nature leisure pursuit… Our present ecological crisis springs from being insulated from our surroundings and the effects of our actions. People should forage, precisely because it can be overdone. Immoderate foraging produces immediate environmental feedback, teaching hunter-gatherer lesson one: if you don’t take care of a resource, you lose it.”

I think you and I both know that Erving is right. As humans, we have an evolutionary need to hunt and gather , but the activity isn’t just about finding food; it’s about understanding the delicate relationship between what we take and what’s left over. Fable’s foraged Shiitake mushrooms offer a beautiful corrective model: simple, natural, better for us and the world in which we live.

The fables of ‘ole were short tales told by animals, passed down to highlight human folly and offer maxims on how best to live. I don’t know about you, but I’ve still got lessons to learn about how I eat, what I eat, and how I can improve.

But, there are steps you and I can take now.

1. Each one of us can become more curious about our food. Start by developing a relationship with what you eat. While cooking, touch each ingredient, ask questions, and discover where each one is from.

2. Shop at your local farmers market. While you’re there, connect with and get to know those who are actively a part of the food growing process.?

3. Challenge yourself. Ask questions like: How am I supporting the environment and farmers? How can I make an impact with my everyday decisions? How can I “vote with my dollar” and purchase healthy, environmentally conscious products??

4. Finally, we can all become more appreciative of our food. Instead of treating meals (or cooking) as a burden or anxious act, approach your food with gratitude. See cooking and eating as an expression of community, oneness with the environment, and continuity.

My experience foraging with Fable was incredible. My hats off to Michael, Jim, and Chris for all their creative work; for the way Fable Food Co. invites us to thoughtfully approach how we eat and, as they say at Fable, “rediscover a story where the animals are characters, not dishes.”

With love,

Gabriel

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Special thanks to Maya Guice for the incredible photos and the entire Fable Food Co team who hosted us Anna Le !