Brassica and Brine is a micro craft food business based in Los Angeles, CA. We specialize in organic, traditional, wild-fermented foods.
Our mission is to make delicious foods that encourage vibrant health in those who eat them. Beyond that, we’re dedicated to increasing public awareness of these nourishing foods and playing a role in our local California foodshed.
How do we achieve this?
For the Soil
We start by sourcing our produce from California organic farmers, farmers who understand the connection between their farming choices and the health of the soil and waterways and the people who eat their produce. Buying local also strengthens our local economy and ensures a minimal carbon footprint. For ingredients we can’t source locally (like the teas for our Kombucha), we source the highest quality organic and fair trade ingredients we can find.
For the Body
We use Old World fermentation methods which are some of the most ancient, safe, and nutrient-enhancing forms of food preservation on earth. Sure, these processes require more craftsmanship than your average mass-produced jar of denatured food at the supermarket, but we believe the flavor and nutrient value make it well worth it (for instance, lacto-fermented cabbage has 20 times more bio-available vitamin C than fresh cabbage).
Our cultured vegetable products are prepared using the lowest-impact form of preservation possible which, unlike modern canned or preserved foods, uses no heat whatsoever. We add no preservatives or chemicals, and we use one of the best quality unrefined sea salts on earth–Celtic Sea Salt ® .
Our raw, unfiltered kombuchas are distinguished by the fact that we use less sugar in our brewing process for a more mild and refined flavor that retains all the healing benefits for which kombucha is known. We don’t add any fillers before or after brewing–that means no artificial carbon-dioxide added at the bottling stage, no pasteurization, and no filtration.
Our products are always organic, raw, vegan, gluten-free, kosher-pareve, and brimming with live, active cultures.
For the Community
Since the beginning we made the intentional choice to bank with a Los Angeles-based credit union in order to keep more money local.
We offer a 10% discount to Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition members who ride their bike to purchase our goods. Not a LACBC member yet? Why not join and support bicycle riding in Los Angeles. After all, you only need to buy 39 jars of kimchi and, with the 10% discount, the membership pays for itself 
(not to mention the cool discounts you get at other LA-area shops and businesses).
For the Future
Not that it makes our products taste better, but we go above-and-beyond in every way we can. Our sample cups which look like plastic are actually made from biodegradable corn. We compost our vegetable scraps at a local Biodynamic school farm. Our bags are made out of organic biodegradable materials. We even found a 100% wind-powered web host based here on the West coast.
About the Founder
Hi! I’m company founder and Southern California native Jordan “Uri” Laio.
I became obsessed with lacto-fermentation (traditional pickling) in 2008 as an apprentice on a small organic farm in Connecticut. In between milking the goats, harvesting vegetables, and brewing biodiesel, I spent many hours learning pickling skills from Master Pickler Josh Rosenstein. I became fascinated with the process and the resulting complex, satisfying flavors and the robust health I experienced after incorporating lacto-fermented foods into my diet. Over the next year I continued working on various organic farms through WWOOF.
While I was living the good life, I became alarmed by the stuff being sold as food in supermarkets and the diet-related diseases caused by those foods. My reaction was to make even more of my own food from the best local organic ingredients.
I kept creating amazing sauerkraut, kimchi, and other pickles in my spare time after leaving the farms. I shared my food and my skills with more and more people and it became my biggest hobby.
I even kept pickling throughout my first year in law school and while interning at a San Francisco-based law firm. While the legal studies were not exactly exciting, I could always look forward to brewing a new pickle when I came home, a pastime in which my friends were supportive and happy to partake. When enough people were offering to buy my pickles and I saw I was much happier in the kitchen than in the courtroom, I knew something had to change.
I came to terms with the fact that creating artisanal living foods is my true passion. Needless to say, I dropped out of law school in order to do what makes me happy.
Some of my sustainable-food-culture role models are Sandor Katz, Alex Hozven, and Joel Salatin.
I craft Brassica and Brine pickles with the same quality ingredients that I use at home and which I share with my friends and family. I’m excited to share my passion and these amazing healing foods with you!
We hope you enjoy our products and that they help you the same way they have helped us.