Do You Know the Fork Ranger?

If you have been following us for a while, you will have noticed we do love food. (If you are here for the first time, why not browse the blog and find recipes for pickles, chutney, breads, pumpkin pancakes and more?)
As the choices you make for your food not only influence your own health, but also the planet’s, we think it is important to make the right choices. This isn’t always easy. We know.

That’s why we are happy to have found Fork Ranger, and proud to be offering both their book and seasonal fruit and vegetable calendar for sale on our website. They make making the right choices just that bit easier.

But you may be wondering: who is this Fork Ranger?
I say: it’s time for an interview.

Who are behind Fork Ranger?

‘We’re Mareike and Frank and we started Fork Ranger to make it easier and more fun to eat sustainably.’

Can you tell us a bit about your background and what made you start Fork Ranger?

Frank: ‘When I grew up in Switzerland I fell in love with nature. I was 15 when I made my first website about melting glaciers and polar bears. I read a lot about climate change. For a long time it felt like I needed a technical degree to solve climate change. But when I read the book Project Drawdown about 100 solutions to solve climate change, it gave me hope. Most of the top solutions were related to food. It gave me hope that I could contribute by what’s on my plate. I started diving into it as I wanted to know which changes made a lot of impact and which less. After researching this and gathering and changing recipes for my own dinner I didn’t want to keep this journey to myself. With my background in Communication & Design it was a small step to combine these insights and recipes in a book. Or a cookbook as many people call it.’

What has Fork Ranger done so far?

Frank: ‘After the book came out – which started more as a project – the reactions were so positive that I started thinking how I could reach more people. I wasn’t my dream to become a classical cookbook author publishing one new book per year. During that time I met Mareike and we started thinking of becoming a tech start-up. We would transform the Fork Ranger concept into an app. That way we could make it more interactive, personalised and engaging!’

Mareike: ‘We found some friends who helped us launch the first version. Soon we realized it was extremely hard to find the right app format to reach millions. We went back to reading our user interviews: what were their challenges? One of the things we found out is that people want to eat more seasonal. Also it required a combination of our skills: research, design, new recipes. We started working on it and were amazed about the enormous interest in it.

With all the insights from the user interviews we also knew that people wanted to eat more seasonally. So we explored how we could help them with our approach of solid research, appealing design, and recipes. The result is our seasonal calendar, where you can see what’s in season and put into practice with easy recipes.’

Frank: ‘At some point I was invited to give a TEDx talk and from there on, I started doing it more often. Keynotes and presentations are a great way to share our underlying mission with people. We want to help people live an alternate version of ‘The Good Life’. Not a life focused on buying more stuff but on more memories and local adventures. And of course food is a big part of this new good life.’

What can people expect of your recipes?

Mareike: ‘We’re both not professional cooks but I think that’s our strength. We create recipes that are tasty yet easy. The recipes are perfect for regular people with busy lives, who want to have something sustainable on the table without spending too much time or going shopping at three different stores for one meal. We always use an interesting combination of vegetables and flavours. Before any of the recipes is published they are tested by the home cooks who joined our Fork Ranger cooking club, and they need to have a 4- or 5-star rating. We do have high standards for simple recipes.’

And why should people want to use them?

‘Our recipes …

• always contain multiple veggies so you reach a healthy amount of them
• always contain a source of protein
• offer new combinations of ordinary ingredients
• offer a chance to try something new without spending hours in the kitchen
• invite to eat more nuts and legumes
• invite to eat less meat, without doubling down on cheese
• make it easy to find recipes where 100% of the veggies are in season’

How are the responses so far?

‘We are blown away with the support for our work. People writing lengthy emails to us telling us how we helped them is what makes our day. Also the crowdfunding campaign for our seasonal calendar was succesful in just 6 days. We couldn’t have imagined that.

We’re most proud of being able to attract a wide set of people who feel inspired.’

What’s next?

‘We’ve designed the seasonal calendar so that it covers the UK and Germany too. We’re exploring existing initiatives to partner with, so more people discover sustainable food. Also we have an extensive list of new ideas: from online meet-ups to lunch recipes etc. We are currently thinking about what the next big project should be. In the meantime the app is improved, new recipes are created and we share all our sustainability findings and own journey through our newsletter.

We hope that many people will join us in the exploration of sustainable food. With many people making different choices we can have a serious impact on climate change and change the norm of food. In a few years we hope that all food that’s available to us is sustainable and that our supermarkets, restaurants and companies make it easy for us to eat healthy and sustainable.

Of course we hope to create an even better Fork Ranger journey for people. The first next thing we want to do is to built an Android version. Because we don’t want to leave so many people out.’

And that leaves me with little to add, except a thanks to Frank and Mareike of Fork Ranger for taking the time to answer our questions.

And yes, after having tried quite a few of their recipes, I can wholeheartedly confirm they are ideal for busy weeknights. Moreover, they are loved by all the family, the kids already asking to make them again. Why not check them out yourself? You can start right here.

For more thoughts and tips on making sustainable food choices, read our earlier Food for Thought post.