It is hard to underestimate the importance of salt. It is used to produce so many products in the textiles, plastics, soap, paper, glass, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics industries, to name a few. We all know it is essential in the flavoring of food while being vital for our bodies (and that of other animals – remember hearing about salt licks for cows) and surprisingly in the treatment of water. I don't normally spend much time thinking about salt, except maybe which gourmet kind to buy my best friend who cooks magnificent meals that I get to enjoy. Amazing what I learned in a salt museum. (-:
When my dad was out working every day in the F120-degree heat of the Middle East, the perspiration in his clothes would cause them to keep their form when dried and be “crunchy” to the touch. All from the salt in his perspiration. He lost so much each day, he had to take salt tablets. He even enjoyed adding salt to his beer, a practice I still follow to this day.
The production is more complicated than I could grasp from our French guide but I know there is a salt master, like a wine master, who carefully monitors the salt flats, the sea water intake and chooses just the right late summer day to drain the ponds and collect the salt that has crystallized on the bottom. (Please forgive my layman’s description.) One of the important aspects of this huge operation was its emphasis on conservation of the natural landscape and marsh lands so important to the flamingoes and other wildlife. The company, which is owned by just one man, takes great pride in its ethical production techniques and traditional methods. After being cooped up all week in the classroom, I welcomed spending this beautiful, cloudy, windy day outdoors.
Best, Pam.
A map of the huge salt ponds created to harvest the salt from the sea.
Machinery and Salt.
I’m standing on a mountain of salt with a huge mountain behind me. It is hard to show the scale of this pile. About 60 feet high and hundreds of feet long.
And of course, what is a salt mining company without a museum of salt to explain it all.