ape_nutrition

As technology use grows & data centres replace land, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the way I have interacted with spaces in nature over the years, how they’ve guided me through transitory periods and shaped how I move forward…

Dartmoor was a huge part of building APE, and not from a business perspective but as a personal rehabilitation from the many years of working in London. Both Izzi & I needed to become reacquainted with the land & taken into its raw & sometimes less comfortable conditions in order to find some sort of revival from the sterility city life had embedded.

There is something special about revisiting a particular place week after week witnessing the changes in season both nature & human.

Our recent trip up to the same stretch of river we’ve visited for the past decade really brought this home. And although our lives now are much closer to nature day to day, there’s still so much to be gained, a deep level of stillness, from visiting places like this that are still wild and unspoiled.

I believe everyone needs that one particular place outside that holds sentimental value in the same way human relationships do. Throughout our evolution we would have held an affinity to so many areas in nature and now so many don’t even have one.

It got me thinking that I’m sure some of these spaces being developed are someone’s piece of the earth that holds the same value this river does for us and this isn’t something governments even consider, never mind value.

With dis-ease, illness & mental health problems the answer isn’t more consumption, more synthetic or more technology.

It’s fostering a relationship with somewhere outside in the real, even if it’s just a simple view of a field from a park bench or tending your garden.

At some point in the future it’s going to be realised how important this is and that destroying these places was a huge error.

I hope this isn’t before it’s too late.

There’s a link in our bio for the petition to ban the construction of new AI data centres.

Over two years of trying to figure something out and it’s finally almost ready… 👀

In the wild, predators don’t go for the muscle meat first…

They often start with the organs, especially the liver.

Why?

Because it’s the most nutrient-dense part of the entire animal.

In the wild, it’s all about survival.

And that predator intuitively knows that by eating the liver and flooding its body with nutrients, it’s going to be sharper and stronger - giving itself the best chance to catch its next meal.

Historically humans prized organ meats and especially liver for the same reason. They’d give it to their warriors, the sick, or couples trying to conceive as they knew it would help them in battle, to recover or get pregnant.

Fast forward to the modern world and we can survive sub-optimally like never before. We can discard the most nutrient dense foods that have been our focus for centuries because our next meal isn’t in doubt.

But why would we want to survive and not thrive?

Here’s the trailer for episode one of Conversations Outdoors with Jack Burgess from

Based on the edge of Exmoor in Devon, Jack and his wife Gemma run an award-winning, first-generation farming operation specialising in breeding top-quality bulls and heifers.

They farm based on regenerative principles and it was amazing to see what they’ve built over the last nine years.

We discuss how Jack went from receiving two Hereford cows as a wedding present from his parents to having the award winning herd he has today all whilst being a fireman, renovating a home and having a baby.

Seeing what him and Gemma have achieved without funding or much spare time shows that farming, even if it’s just growing some fruit and veg and keeping a few animals, is achievable if you really want to make it happen.

We also talk about how farming isn’t black and white… and how due to the nature of the terrain on his specific farm and the weather in the UK, Jack does need to feed his cows some supplementary feed and bring them indoors in winter to protect the health of the soil.

I really hope our longer form conversation around these topics provides some more context on the realities of farming. In my opinion Jack is doing everything in the most natural way possible considering his situation and doing an incredible job at that.

He is rearing amazingly healthy animals in this way, the level of care for them is second to none and at the same time he’s producing nutrient dense food, has proof that he’s building the organic matter in the soil and as a result of rebuilding hedgerows / letting native grass species grow back and using minimal inputs (e.g. no fertiliser), is increasing wildlife in the area.

We also talk about; the family farm tax, the best way to feed the nation, how you can farm animals on land you can’t grow crops on, and much more…

Full episode will be released in July and there’s plenty more to come too - looking forward to hearing what you think and please let me know if the comments below if you’d like to speak to us or know someone who you think we should visit 🙏

They’re finally ready… Our New Grass-Fed Beef Sticks 🥩🌿

We really believe we’ve created the cleanest and best tasting beef snack out there: 

• Made with 100% real food ingredients 
• Made by expert charcutiers and you can taste it! 
• Sustainably sourced from grass-fed & regeneratively farmed cattle 
• Fermented with honey (instead of dextrose or other processed sugars) 
• Made without preservatives 
• Naturally flavoured with seasoning & spices
• Made in partnership with British farmers 

Each stick contains 10 grams of protein, less than 0.5 grams of carbs and is only 81 calories. 

Why Meat Sticks?

As with all of our products, we developed these because they’re something we wanted to have on a daily basis and they didn’t exist in the UK. Sure, there’s plenty of other meat and beef snacks, but none-ticked all the boxes for us. 

They were either too chewy (so you ended up with an aching jaw or not being able to eat them all), contained preservatives / processed sugar / some other ingredient we didn’t want or weren’t sourced from a grass-fed and regenerative farm. 

It took us years of conversations before we found the right partner to work with to bring our vision to life. And even then, we spent a long time developing them so they could be made without preservatives, and cured with raw honey rather than the refined sugars you often find in most dried beef products. 

Just as nature intended. 

One of the things we’re most proud of with these sticks is the flavour. In our experience, meat snacks often taste like they’ve been mass produced on a factory line… whereas with our Beef Sticks, they’ve been made with the highest quality beef and by charcutiers and this really comes through in the taste and texture.

Can’t wait to hear what you all think 🙏