Created in 2018 by Julie Maenhout, “Les Jarres Crues” is a young brand of lacto-fermented vegetables, with intense flavours and health benefits.
With a background of Engineer, Julie is convinced of the benefits of the living foods. In Bordeaux (France), where she is based, she has been developing her brand of lacto-fermented products since 2018 to share her discoveries about this forgotten art.
Lacto-fermentation as a health asset
In the path to her research, Julie discovered the crucial role of the intestine on our body and found that natural lacto-fermentation has many benefits for regulating the microbiota.
In addition to its health benefits, lacto-fermentation adds a delicious taste to vegetables. Julie then started experimenting with recipes and developed a range of products under the brand name “Les Jarres Crues”, with the aim of sharing healthy and tasty dishes.
Her objective? To work on the best combinations of vegetables in order to make lacto-fermentation and its benefits known to as many people as possible and to allow as many people as possible to take care of their health.
Preserving vegetables by lacto-fermentation preserves their vitamins for several months or even several years. These vitamins are more easily assimilated by our body thanks to the action of lactic bacteria. These bacteria pre-digest the fibres in raw vegetables, so our body has less work to do. As the fibres are pre-digested, the vitamins are more easily assimilated by our body and we therefore absorb a greater proportion of them.
When consumed at the beginning of a meal, lacto-fermented vegetables gently start the digestion process and improve the digestibility of your daily meals.
An ancient method of lacto-fermentation
Lacto-fermentation, or lactic acid fermentation, is an ancestral preservation technique that preserves all the vitamins and nutrients in vegetables, without cooking, pasteurisation or vinegar.
The first step is to prepare raw, fresh, organic and local vegetables and then add spices and sea salt to drain the vegetable juice. The vegetables are then immersed in their own juice.
Placed in the fermentation jar, without oxygen, at room temperature for 4 to 6 weeks, the lactic flora naturally present on the vegetables develop, consume the natural sugars and transform them into lactic acid. During the fermentation process, the probiotics develop.
The preparation is then placed in unpasteurised glass jars to be kept cool to avoid refermentation in the jar.
This incredible ancestral technique, somewhat forgotten in France, makes it possible to enhance the value of vegetables by preserving all their flavours and thus offer natural and healthy products. Beyond the technique, lacto-fermentation requires know-how and time!
Working with vegetables close to the producers
Les Jarres Crues are made from vegetables grown in the vicinity of the laboratory.
Julie works exclusively with local and regional producers and favours organically grown vegetables in order to promote short circuits.
She also wants to develop the brand’s presence in the region through cooperatives and specialised organic shops to promote the sector. A virtuous approach to naturalness.
Tasty lacto-fermented recipes
Fermentation takes a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks to produce interesting recipes. The best known are sauerkraut, gherkins, Korean kimchi, Lebanese turnips and achard.
Lacto-fermented vegetables can be used in salads, cooked vegetable dishes, sandwiches, bowls, toast, etc. They can be served as an accompaniment to a dish.
Les Jarres Crues range now includes six recipes that can be used to create recipes to suit everyone’s taste:
- Vegetable Achards
- Beetroot, turnip, ginger
- Carrot, radish, turmeric
- Raw sauerkraut
- Sauerkraut with seaweed
- Kimchi
- Pickles
The brand also proposed two juices (beetroot, turnip, ginger and Kimchi) whose tangy flavour adds a touch of pep to the plate, as a sauce or condiment.
Les Jarres Crues are precious allies for filling up on vitamins and nutrients, in keeping with nature’s time.
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