Meet Katerina, Founder of Byron Fermentary

What is Fermentation?

Vegetable fermentation is a time-honoured preservation technique with origins that date back thousands of years, across ancient cultures spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas. 

A process that enhances both the flavour and shelf-life of vegetables, fermentation also inspires the growth of beneficial probiotics, providing amazing support for gut health, immunity, digestion and more. 

In an age where resourcefulness and sovereignty of our food is becoming imperative, learning the art of vegetable fermentation provides empowerment for individuals to create their own nutritious, probiotic-rich foods at home.
It offers a significant step on the pathway towards self-sufficiency, and encourages a deeper connection to the food we consume. By embracing this ancient practice, we can enjoy delicious, health-promoting foods while gaining lifelong skills for our own personal food production. 

Introducing Katerina Lazareva, Fermentation Innovator at The Farm

Born into a complex world, Katerina’s grandparents were exiled to Kazakhstan where they endured the harsh existence of labour camps. 

As somewhat of a silver lining, the cold and unforgiving environment there translated to some of the most powerful lessons of Katerina’s current life. 

Food items that modern-day children would consider inedible waste; such as throw-away vegetable scraps and fruit peels - became a valuable commodity and source of future nourishment, once fermented.

“I actually hated kombucha when I was kid”

Katerina recalls her Grandma placing vegetable scraps into a jar with some sugar to create Kvass. “We had a table full of pickles, ferments, and preserves of these coloured, smelly drinks. “I actually hated kombucha when I was kid”, she smiles. 

More than just Sauerkraut 

Years later, the family returned to Russia and put the experience behind them.

Katerina finished school, studied advertising at University, and soon found herself running a successful Advertising Agency in London.

Working long days and living what she describes as a “very corporate life”, Katerina’s life had started feeling very foreign.

“I was so detached from my roots. 

I’ve seen photos of myself back then 

and don’t recognise myself”.

One night, still living her corporate London life, Katerina had a dream. “I was chopping colourful vegetables, wearing a chef's jacket with an Australian flag on my sleeve”. 

The dream felt powerful, and was the catalyst for a life changing decision. Upon waking, Katerina knew she had to move to Australia.
Three months later, Katerina was living in Australia attending cooking school at TAFE. 

While remotely running her agency in the UK and navigating the different time-zones, Katerina rapidly excelled as a chef in Australia and began working at multiple awarded restaurantsl. Success seemed to come easily for her, but the price was high. Katerina was soon overwhelmed by burn out, and the realisation that she needed to spend some time away from the industry to gain perspective. 

“I knew I wanted to do something meaningful, working with food, and to be creative”, she reflects as shares the challenges she faced. 

Katerina knew that staying wasn’t the answer, and instead booked a trip to India - a trip that would once again change the course of her life.

“India reconnected me with my background, my roots”, she recalls fondly. “My Grandma and I spoke on the phone a lot, and I started to remember what used to matter. How things used to feel”.

Having seen first-hand the opulence of fine dining restaurants of Australia, Indian culture exposed Katerina to the polar opposite way of life. In Sydney she had witnessed people spend hundreds, if not thousands, on an extravagant meal. She felt fresh inspiration as she saw entire families living off the equivalent of $1 a week. Nothing was wasted in India, and Katerina found renewed connection to her food and heritage.

Slow fermentation

Returning to Australia, she put her life as a chef behind her. 

An opportunity in health food arose, and while it wasn’t by any means her dream career, she attributes the creation of her first closed-loop system in that role - a pivotal stepping stone on the path to her new direction. 

“Any produce that was about to expire on the store shelves would be sent into the cafe for the chefs to use. I didn’t want to see any waste. Just introducing that one simple process reduced waste significantly for the company, not to mention increasing profits. It really opened my eyes to the incredible potential of closed-loop systems”. 

Short-lived but necessary, that role nudged Katerina out of the city and was the catalyst for her relocation to the Northern Rivers.
A vision of mountains had come to her in a dream, and upon arriving in Mullumbimby she recognised Mt Chincogan from that dream. She realised she had found home. 

Joining the Mullumbimby Community Garden, Katerina began growing veggies and reconnecting with her roots. “It just happened naturally, I just started to ferment things using my grandparents' recipes, doing R&D, and soon I found myself selling ferments at the Ballina Farmers Market on Sundays”, she shares.
It wasn’t long before Katerina had so much produce that she began doing Gold Coast markets too. In a happy turn of events, just as Katerina decided to go all-in on her fermenting efforts, the resident fermenter at the Byron and Mullum markets moved on, opening up a position for Katerina to step in and sell her ferments at every market in the Northern Rivers. 

The Future of Fermentation

In June 2019, Katerina was invited to create her ferments at The Farm at Byron Bay.

This came with a quarter-acre market garden plot, a commercial kitchen, and connection to a regenerative farm where she could effortlessly collaborate with other sustainable businesses.

From humble beginnings, Katerina’s fermenting enterprise now incorporates online training portals, in-person workshops, and a vision to inspire all of Australia to begin fermentation. 

Her dream is to see every community in the world integrating a fermenter into their community - where farmers and restaurants have a dedicated place to send their organic waste, scraps, to become a source of gut-nourishing food for the community. 

“I want to create a big change. All things are connected. If we’re healthy, we’re taking care of the planet, and the planet takes care of us. I want to inspire this change, and help us move forward with less waste and more nourishing food”. 

In 2021 Katerina moved to a fully closed-loop system, sharing that virtually everything can be used to create ferments. She considers the “Koji Fermentation” an ultimate tool, as leaves, peels, and almost everything (with the exception of rotting vegetables) can be used to create a gut-friendly product. An advanced technique, she describes Koji as, “a magical instrument to transform practically anything into umami rich, nutritious food”. 

Compost

Katerina firmly believes that compost is an essential part of any closed loop system.
“I still have a few things that I can’t use at the end of the cycle, which circle back into the compost, which in turn nourishes the soil in my garden”. 

Katerina explains that food waste that ends up in landfills produces methane, and the methane produced is 30% more potent than carbon dioxide.
“Cooking to compost is sustainable, but cooking to fermenting to composting - that’s regenerative. You’re creating something beneficial for your gut health, you’re reducing food waste, and you’re creating compost which benefits the earth”. 

Introducing All things Cultured

“I want fermentation to be 

accessible to everyone”.

Katerina’s long-term vision is to make fermentation accessible to people around the world, located everywhere from remote rural areas and in bustling city centres.
To bring this dream to life, in 2024 she created “All Things Cultured” - an online educational platform teaching seasonal, closed loop, and zero waste fermentation practices.

Katerina is an advocate for forward thinking when it comes to shopping and cooking. She wants people to view their entire fridge full of produce, envision their menu for the week, and plan to set aside “scraps”; things that would often be discarded such as vegetable & fruit peels. These “scraps” become an extension of their weekly menu; they’ll be the prime ingredients for fermented products, adding gut-healthy ferments and minimising food waste. 

This is a practice that will accrue incremental value as time goes on; fermented products have a decent shelf life in the refrigerator, and they offer an opportunity to access additional value from produce - the cost of which only seems to go up over time. 

“I really want to show people how easy this is, and how many benefits there are. There’s gut health - but there’s also a significant reduction in food waste, it saves money by creating food out of scraps, and we’re helping the planet cope with emissions”

According to Katerina, the art of natural, wild fermentation is increasingly rare these days. 

Modern technologies have created lab-engineered probiotic powders that create a sort of “instant kraut”, where a higher yield is achieved in a much shorter time.

The natural way takes weeks to ferment. 

With our collective food waste contributing to around 20% of emissions, and 1.3 billion tonnes of food wasted annually worldwide, it’s easy to see why Katerina is so passionate about fermentation. 

Fermenting at The Farm

What does Katerina love most about working at The Farm?

Working in a world-class education hub with leaders in the industry, and the sense of family and community that has been established here. 

“It’s my home away from home. 

I spend most of my life here”

Katerina sees the incredible potential on offer and loves being surrounded by fellow growers, farmers and innovators in a sustainable, regenerative environment.

“We need to stop wasting food, and we need to start learning fermentation”, she says, adding that we need to eat more like our great grandparents and ancestors.

It’s hard to imagine one of Australia’s most renowned fermenters hating kombucha as kid; equally hard to imagine this vibrant, smiling gardener as a once high-flying corporate executive.
Thriving is in Katerina’s nature though; and from her colourful background in advertising, as a sought-after chef, and even a pilgrimage to India, Katerina has found her calling in a ¼ acre market garden - filling fridges with colourful nourishments, while educating our global communities on fermentation.