The Roots of Fire Ox
Hi friends and supporters!
Zoë here, one of the creators of Fire Ox. We are starting a blog to share why we founded Fire Ox, how our food and brand came to be, and how our mission and values have guided (and continue to guide) many difficult decisions. Or, as I like to think about it, I’d like to share the roots of our business. If Fire Ox was a tree, the leaves and flowers would be the food we create, but there is so much more that went into growing the tree – starting with the roots.
What are Fire Ox’s roots?
The discovery of Earth’s raw beauty - the trees, the sun, plants, flowers - the wildness of our beautiful Mother Earth
Our love for delicious, nourishing real food
Our heart-led passion to nourish others by helping people discover good food as well as connecting people to their fire and to Mother Earth.
How do these roots shape our values?
Fire ox was created to nourish. What is nourishment? How do we nourish ourselves?
We believe nourishing food is food:
- that is alive
- food that was grown in the earth
- food that was conceived and cooked with love and intention
How did our food come to be?
We started with food that we loved – food that tastes delicious and feels nourishing.
There are many cultures around the world that have figured out how to make wholesome vegetable dishes that taste fantastic. These dishes are craved by consumers – not because of their health attributes but because of their culinary merits. We have drawn inspiration from cuisines from around the world – Ethiopian, Mexican, Thai, and Italian to name a few – to create our entrees.
And yes, we started in our own kitchens – testing and experimenting with different ingredients and cooking steps. After many months of testing, we were ready to scale up our recipes and produce thousands of them at a time. But in order to do that properly, we had to do even more testing in the processing facility’s kettles. And there’s always more tweaking and perfecting to do as we grow.
When we developed our recipes, we also considered a few things beyond deliciousness and nutrition:
· How easy it would be to scale recipes to a larger production facility beyond our kitchen
· Ability to source ingredients to make our food
· Cost of the ingredients, production, and packaging
Even though we have a line of meals and Plant Sliders developed and ready for market, we are always looking for more inspiration. Do you love good food and have ideas for us? Send them our way!
Love & cheers,
Zoë