Fermenting a love of natural food
In recent years, the health benefits of consuming fermented foods have been getting a lot more attention. But some people have been fermenting their own foods at home as well as developing products that are packed with natural goodness for everyone to use.
Michel D’Hondt is one such person. Under the brand D’Hondt & Sons, his family produce a range of bio-fermented products. Everything from honey to salt has been enhanced with bio-fermented goodness.
Michel says it all starts with the soil. ‘‘If you grow things in soil lacking in minerals, then you don’t get any benefit when you eat them, so understanding the importance of healthy soil is key.
‘‘Then you also need to understand the relationship between nutrient-dense foods and health. We have spent many years researching the use of bacteria and minerals in organic agriculture and horticulture. We set about creating a growing environment that is packed with minerals beneficial to our health.’’
D’Hondt & Sons grows as much of its own produce as possible in its organic gardens. The few ingredients it doesn’t grow are sourced from other organic gardens. The family work with those products to create their bio-fermented foods and condiments.
In their gardens, they use their own trademarked formulation called Biogenic Manna, ‘‘which allows us to grow dense, nutritious food that has a high mineral content’’, Michel says.
Michel trained in Efficient Microorganisms at Thailand’s Saraburri International Training Centre in 2005. In 2008, he complemented this work with a Certificate for Bio-dynamic Agriculture from Taruna College of Education in New Zealand, before completing his training in micro-nutrition through the Doctor Rath Foundation for Health in Belgium.
He has been putting that education to good use, and over many years has developed agricultural techniques suited to an ever-changing environment for the production of nutrient-dense food.
Effective Micro-Organisms (EM) was developed in Japan in the 1980s by Teruo Higa, a horticulture professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa. It is a combination of useful microorganisms that exist freely in nature, brought together by an organic process.
‘‘The discovery was that you could mix photosynthetic microbes, the ones mixing with light and oxygen, and anaerobic microbes, the ones working in the dark and without oxygen – and they live happily together in water and molasses. Then you grow them, which makes a cheap and complete technology,’’ Michel says.
Long before he gets to the biofermentation and blending stage, he needs the nutrient-dense products to use – and this starts with the soil.
‘‘EM becomes a fermenting agent to enhance the soil nutrients, rather than acting as a compost that decomposes material, and that means we aren’t creating a compost environment that burns the energy in the organic matter. We aim to preserve the biomass but enhance its nutritional values.’’
Once he has the nutrient-dense foods, ‘‘we then work on bio-fermentation to add even more health benefits. Biofermentation essentially unlocks the health-boosting micronutrients contained in food so our bodies can fully absorb and utilise them’’.
‘‘We have developed a bio-fermentation process that creates food products with naturally high antioxidant and probiotic properties.’’
Michel says the process he has developed over many years of trial and error means he can create extremely nutrient-dense foods and food additives (like his salts) ‘‘by using efficient microorganisms in the fermentation process to extract the active ingredients of the organic turmeric, for example. We can preserve it in quality New Zealand organic products like sea salt and honey’’.
The D’Hondt family produce a range of enhanced honey products. ‘‘We use mainly our raw, unfiltered Nelson honey and blend it with things like biofermented pollen, ginger and turmeric, and bio-fermented cinnamon.’’
Michel says the fermented turmeric and pollen in honey is one of the company’s most popular products. It also produces a range of different products using organic sea salt, as well as products like bio-fermented apple and pear syrup, which relies on the natural fruit sugars rather than adding processed sugar.
Check out the D’Hondts’ website (dhondtandsons.com) or track Michel down at the Nelson Market on Saturdays, the Motueka Market on Sundays, and the Nelson Farmers Market on Wednesdays.
‘‘We have developed a biofermentation process that creates food products with naturally high antioxidant and probiotic properties.’’ Michel D’Hondt