Following on from last week’s ‘Happy New Year’ article on fresh starts, gut health, and new products, this week we spoke with Katerina Lazareva, from Byron Fermentary, a master fermenter whose work continues to evolve through seasonality, innovation, and a commitment to closed-waste systems.
For Katerina, health is not something to focus on for a single month of the year. It’s a daily practice. ‘Everything in our body is connected to the gut, including the mind,’ she explains. Rather than extreme resets, she encourages people to begin with simple, enjoyable fermented foods that support the body gently and consistently.
One of the products she often recommends as a starting point is amazake, an ancient Japanese fermented drink made from koji rice. Naturally sweet and easy to digest, amazake is both probiotic and prebiotic, feeding beneficial gut bacteria while providing sustained energy. It changes with the seasons – recent batches featured native Davidson plum, with turmeric and chai variations now emerging. Amazake can be enjoyed as a morning shot or served with fruit and granola as a nourishing breakfast.
Alongside amazake, Katerina produces a rotating range of seasonal vegetable ferments. Any vegetable can be fermented depending on availability, meaning flavours and nutrients shift throughout the year. These savoury ferments contain different bacterial strains that complement amazake, supporting digestion and nutrient absorption.
Beyond these, Katerina continues to develop an expanding range of misos from mushroom stalks, vegetables, macadamias, and even used coffee grounds – ingredients often considered waste or surplus. All products are vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and legume-free.
She is also developing a no-soy sauce: a long-fermented seasoning designed to taste like soy sauce without using soy, made entirely from surplus ingredients.
Katerina runs hands-on fermentation workshops throughout the year for both beginners and advanced fermenters, and can be found every Friday at Mullum Farmers Market which is held at Mullumbimby Showground from 7am to 11am.
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