From Dream to Reality: How Forage Folk Was Born

Today we have the wonderful opportunity to sit down with the husband and wife duo that founded Forage Folk, Johanna and Ugo. Their delightful outlook is refreshing in a world that seems to care for nothing but self. Halfway around the world, Johanna and Ugo video-called from Nigeria, where they have been visiting for both business and pleasure. Despite the distance, their eyes twinkled with the opportunity to talk about the brand and mission they love so dearly. 

FF: Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your passions.

JJ: I’m Johanna. My professional background is in international business and marketing, but I grew up in the small mountain town of Bonners Ferry in North Idaho. My childhood was filled with wide open spaces, bare feet, and getting to explore the natural world around me. After high school, I found myself living in many different cities, including Boise, Utrecht (The Netherlands), and Berlin, where I met Ugo. But after living in the city for so long, I really started to miss the purity and wildness of the Idaho mountains and nature I grew up in. We ultimately moved back to Bonners Ferry, where we have a 5-acre property that we get to cultivate and forage with our two children. In our small town, there isn’t much going on in the town, but when you pay attention, it is a very busy place, teeming with an abundance of nature in the wild all around us. Even though I have traveled all around the world–I don’t even know how many countries I’ve been to at this point–I’ve been able to accumulate different perspectives on the way people live. Which has significantly played a role in the inception of Forage Folk. 

UO: I was born and raised in Nigeria and spent over a decade in Germany before moving to rural North Idaho. The move to Idaho fueled my passion for connecting to nature. Upon settling into our new hometown, I planned to start a business that harnessed the abundant resources available in the area, and from this desire, Forage Folk was also born. In my free time, I enjoy being active with my family and taking space to relax and reflect. I am passionate about sports and moving my body and I express my creativity through making music and videos. 

FF: Can you share the story behind the inception of Forage Folk? What inspired you to create it?

JJ: After years of working as a marketing consultant, I was disheartened by the extreme consumerism I was witnessing in the marketing space. So many companies are only out to make money, with no regard for things that truly matter. This led me to get an MBA in International Business with a focus on sustainability which allowed for a shift in my career. But even working with more sustainable brands, I learned that many brands that claim to be eco-friendly are not truly sustainable and are using it as a marketing tactic to continue doing what the rest are doing. Forage Folk was born out of this frustration with the “system” and the hope that, as humans, we can do better for our planet and ourselves. 

I’ve had the opportunity to work with a plethora of small brands, designers, and artisanal craftsmen who create really interesting products, but have found it difficult to be profitable. If you are small-scale, it’s often really hard to be profitable. So many people who are at the beginning of the chain of creating products get the short end of the stick. I wanted to create a space that amplifies the voices and products of these creators and encourages them in their work. The idea is to allow an avenue for these small brands to be able to sell their products in a profitable way, so they can focus on creating. And also create a direct portal connecting the people who resonate with these products to the craftsmen or farmers. I want to help people be more in touch with nature, myself included, and provide these items to people who are similar to me and want to be more at one with nature. 

FF: What is the core mission of Forage Folk, and how does it reflect your personal philosophy?

JJ: Our core mission is really stated best in our purpose statement. We believe that nature can enrich modern life and we are on a journey to find our way back “home” to that. Truly, we, as humans, are nature, and somehow we have lost our understanding of that somewhere along the way. We want to support this path for others to find their way back to nature, as well. Do you remember when you were a kid? Life was just more exciting and magical. We have lost that, but when we look at the beauty of nature and take a moment to let ourselves wonder, it starts to bring us back to that. I desire to live at one with nature. I’m not perfect and I never will be, but the mission of Forage Folk is to discover how to do that, together, and live a modern life that is at one with nature. 

Why the name Forage Folk?

JJ: That’s funny, actually. It was about nine years ago I was dreaming about starting some type of company along these lines. I didn’t know what I was going to do at the time, but the name “Forage Folk” came to me and I knew I was going to name it that. I even bought the domain and have been paying for it for nearly a decade before the birth of what Forage Folk is today.

“Forage” refers to the obvious practice of foraging out in the woods, but it goes deeper than that. We are hunters and gatherers by nature. We hunt for rare, little pieces of magic everywhere we go, whether we are in the woods, in a thrift store, or even relationally. Foraging is not just for nature, it is for everything in life. And “Folk” is community oriented. We see it, we know that we need it, but we don’t know how to come back to it. At Forage Folk, we want to connect people within the community that surrounds us. 

FF: How do you envision Forage Folk making a positive impact on the lives of individuals and society as a whole?

JJ: I envision Forage Folk making an impact on individuals by helping support others to find their way to connect with and ground themselves in nature, however, that may look for them. We are helping people to realize how they can live in a more positive and impactful way in their environment–to inspire action, to make things, to save things, conserve. When you are more connected in nature, you are more mindful in every other area of life. Society tells this narrative, “You can’t be sustainable and profitable. You can’t be small-scale and profitable.” But you can be small and profitable. We want to prove to the world that there’s a different way. It’s more about challenging the norm of “bigger is better.” You can be connected with nature, inspire others with that connection, highlighting the magic, and, thus, positively impact people’s lives.

UO: We see it as timely in the world we live in today. Nature is mixed up with all these synthetics, and adulterated with all the “stuff” we have brought into it. A lot of people are fed up with the way things are. We want to meet the current need and provide this space at the right time to start a shift in the way things have been done for the last century.

FF: What kind of community do you envision creating around the Forage Folk brand?

JJ: I imagine that there will be people from different walks of life that all connect on the basis that we all feel better when we are in nature. People come together to connect with nature, and, in the process, realize that we are nature and connect because of it.

UO: This community finds abundance in nature and realizes that we don’t have to keep adding all these things to it. We don’t need to make nature any better than it already is. There is already an abundance. When we have more resources than we need, we end up actually wasting them. People are brought together on this premise.

JJ: There are really two sides of the community. There are the foragers, farmers, artists, and creators, and those who want to connect through the products and craft that they provide. We are not all made to be foragers, but we can all connect. As we are just getting started, I am sure the community will evolve naturally and in a really beautiful, unique, and maybe even in an unexpected way. 

FF: What challenges did you face in establishing Forage Folk?

JJ: When we had the idea, it was a challenge to take it seriously and honor it enough to do anything with it. Believing in ourselves enough and finding the time to dedicate to it, has been our greatest challenge so far. 

UO: Also, we’re a husband and wife team, and that is not always easy. It has taken a lot of communication to make sure we are aligned and have a shared vision and shared roles. Once we realized that we both have the same vision and both have both feet in, that empowered us to go forward.

FF: What inspires you to push forward when you face obstacles, whether related to Forage Folk or otherwise?

JJ: I really believe in this idea. I get excited. I get inspired. I get goosebumps. It scares the shit out of me. When I see these types of “obstacles” that scare me but I am really excited about, I know that that is exactly what I should be doing. Life is short, we can go at any time. I have been blessed to be able to work on things that I choose, and Forage Folk has been an accumulation of our experiences. When obstacles are faced, we just figure it out. My career has essentially been problem-solving, I am a professional problem-solver. It just takes hard work, and the other side of that hard work brings the greatest reward. There is a lot to unlock with pushing forward. 

UO: There are many things that you know are just right in life. You may not always get the opportunity to cherish the things around you. Living in Bonners Ferry, we get to see lots of things to be cherished. You can just stop and stare at them and their beauty for a long time. Living there in the abundance of nature inspires me.

FF: Looking into the future, what is your vision for the growth and evolution of Forage Folk?

JJ: Since the basis of Forage Folk is so rooted in nature, we want to allow it to grow and evolve as it naturally will. Flowing with the seasons, we aren’t putting ourselves under the typical capitalistic pressures and defining success in the conventional way. I see a lot of potential with this brand, far beyond what most will see here today. We are first focused on setting the foundations. With Forage Folk, we are returning to the beginning, where the magic is. Lots of people are not happy with the way things are going. People are sick of this synthetic, fake, plastic-filled world. We are tapping into that community. If I could unleash my wildest dream, it would be to see stores and cafes in the middle of the forest, at one with the world around them. I actually made an image of this dream with AI and I keep it on my desktop to inspire me. 

FF: How can people get involved with Forage Folk?

JJ: As I said already, we have a highly-intentional curated selection of products. You will see a myriad of different offerings in our shop, but one of the greatest ways you can get involved is by supporting these craftsmen. And of course, following along with our journey on social media and our newsletter. We are so excited to see where Forage Folk goes, how it will evolve, and the beautiful community we will get to encounter along the way.

With that, our conversation had come to a close and Johanna and Ugo’s son was eager to whisk them off to the pool. It is always a treat to chat with our founders as they are a wealth of knowledge and inspiration, true dreamers. Make sure to sign up for the Forage Folk newsletter to be the first to get our latest stories delivered to your inbox and follow Forage Folk on Instagram and Facebook to join this community.