This month, we caught up with Michael Truelove of Forage Fish Food – a man on a mission to live off the land and sea solely by foraging food from nature’s larder. He visits the sea, shore and woodlands while educating people about his adventures via his YouTube channel. We asked Michael (also known to friends as Pickle or Pike – @pikadelic) a few questions about his way of life and plans for branching out and growing his business in the future for all to enjoy…
A bit about Michael
“I grew up in Polzeath, and have had an obsession with the coastline since a young child, with nature in general and discovering all things new and unique about my local environment. My career has primarily been as a freelance photographer until the last few years, where I have been concentrating on my knowledge of nature to provide guided tours.
So that’s nearly 50 years of experience on these rocks hunting for creatures and foraging for food, and this obsession with being connected to my environment has now progressed into searching the forest for mushrooms, hedgerows for berries, and the coastline for plants of nutrition and medicinal value.
The coastline remains my area of expertise, whilst the other environments I am essentially new to, and learning about each day. Every day is a school day…
So what’s on the menu?
Using basic tools such as a net, a fishing rod and my hands to collect all of my protein, I can live from foraged finds for around 10 months of the year. What I collect forms about 80% of my natural intake of food. Saying that, its not just surviving, I actually eat like a king as most of what I find could be classed as Michelin Star ingredients! I really enjoy cooking with my spoils, there’s no better thing.
Lobster
Crabs
Prawns
Mussels
Clams
Bass/Mackerel/Bream, all types of fish!
Seaweeds
The kings of the mushroom world: Ceps, Chanterelles
What’s the next step for Forage Fish Food?
I intend to start taking clients on private tours of the coastline, primarily involving:
A nature walk of discovery and the incredible array of creatures that live in this environment. This would include finding hedgerow and coastal edibles, plus catching by hand lobsters and crabs, netting prawns, picking mussels, turning rocks and showing the diversity of creatures on the reef.
The tour will finish with cooking up the spoils we have found on our 3hr forage right there on the beach.
Where’s your favourite place to eat?
It has to be on the beach at Greenaway, this is my beloved place, my spiritual home, my abundant larder, a wild supermarket…
What do you get up to in your down time?
I have no downtime, this is my way of life, an obsession to source my own food and know exactly where everything comes from. I’m living as primal an existence as any human can do these days (and there are many other people living self-sufficiently, far more than I in this world).”
Watch Michael on his foraging adventures by subscribing to his awesome YouTube channel HERE.
Also, make sure you follow Michael and Forage Fish Food on Instagram to be the first to hear when he starts taking people out on his private tours.
We just can’t wait!