Byron Fermentary is a unique closed loop operation that celebrates each part of the vegetable and turns it into multiple nourishing products.
We use a combination of all natural fermentation and closed-loop food system to bring the best out of each ingredient:
Fermentation is the process transforming food by help of natural bacteria, yeast or fungi. This ancient method enhances the bioavailability of nutrients (and makes it delicious!)
Closed-loop food systems ensure that every bit of food is used and nothing is wasted. This includes growing, cooking, drying, fermenting, and composting
Using these complex methods gives us the opportunity to increase food security by creating a range of nutrient dense foods from one plant. We regenerate every leaf, root, and offcut into a product that boosts your gut health.
By using Byron Fermentary’s unique system, our mission is to elevate the baseline for optimal health and move humanity forward. To us it’s more than a food business, it’s our contribution to better future.
Our Story
Byron Fermentary is the creation of Katerina Lazareva, a Russian-born trained Chef living, farming and making in Byron Bay, Australia. Byron Fermentary is a journey from exile and living from the earth, to modern high-pressure kitchens and reconnecting to our roots and greater purpose: to heal the earth through healing ourselves.
In the 1950s, Katerina’s Russian grandparents, respected doctors and scientists, were exiled to a labour camp in Kazakhstan during the Stalin regime. They were forced to leave their home, move to a totally different climate, and survive in harsh conditions. They had no choice but to live the most sustainable way of life they could, so they began to farm and preserve food, and survive from what the earth gave them each day. But then after the regime fell, Katerina’s family moved back to a bigger city and she was born into a busy city life.
Knowing food was in her nature, Katerina moved to Australia a decade ago to become a chef. After years working with incredible chefs in fast-paced but stressful kitchens, she ended up in the Himalayas at a solitary mountain temple. Katerina knew things had to change, but not just for her, for all of us. She no longer wanted to be a part of the system, work for corporations without a sustainable purpose, or eat chemically treated food that causes all our modern generational health issues and damages our environment.
“The aim of Byron Fermentary is not only to heal people, but also to contribute to healing the Earth.”
— Katerina Lazareva, Founder & Fermenter
Katerina moved back to Australia, to a house with a big garden and beautiful kitchen, and continued her own healing journey with food and the earth. Fermented foods and drinks have always been part of her culture, and without reading any books or recipes, she started to create amazing recipes and products with what she had, just like her grandparents did.
Today, Byron Fermentary is the manifestation of all of this experience and ancestral traditions in a range of unique fermented products made from seasonal organic produce. We take a regenerative approach to everything we do, from the way we produce our vegetables using regenerative practices at The Farm at Byron Bay, or the way we source them from local organic growers. We make gut-friendly fermented vegetable products which then have off-cuts, which we use to make our gut-friendly fermented vegetable juices, with anything left over heading to the compost. Nothing goes to waste, ever.
