h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The French also produce Fleurs du Sel on the Ile de Re - used as a delicious base for the local seafood.
And it's not only Maldon that produced salt here in Britain: in Scotland they used local coal to boil off sea water:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/whereilive/coast/stages.shtml?walk=centralandfife&stage=3
Then, of course, there's what you could call the "fossilised" sea water, source of the great Cheshire salt springs. A lot of the local towns derive their "-wich" name endings from the fact that they've been producing salt since Roman times:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt
Gosh, I just wish the stuff wasn't so bad for my blood pressure. Almost as bad as politics!

Coincidentally, Huge Furry-Whittingstall had a recipe in this weekend's Guardian for Canary spuds:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/01/new-potato-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall

Also includes recipes for a couple of dips to go with them.

Thanks for reading the Entry sheffieldsuze - you are quite right - there are numerous places that make seasalt. I just had to limit myself to three fairly different locations. I nearly chose the Ile de Re . . .

Hope to see you around the site!

and thanks for the link hygienicdispenser!

Loved the material but your three examples were all the same: hand made artisan sea salt from Europe!

I did some work for Dampier Salt (http://www.dampiersalt.com.au/) years ago. They make sea salt but on a non-artisan scale with their salt pans measured in square kilometres, sun dried and the output shipped directly in bulk carriers from deep water wharves.

Yes - true! It is Eurocentric... I started just writing about the Lanzarote salinas, (because this is my home), and then added one comparison, then another.

It sounds as if your experience was more on the industrial scale? I tried looking at your link but it seemed broken. I'd be interested to see it.

Anyway - I am glad to know that people are reading it makes writing worthwhile! Thanks for commenting!



Lanzababy

Lanzababy, I just wanted to add the following to your research.

Sea salt from Cervia
Situated on the Adriatic sea between Ravenna and Rimini, the city of Cervia is thought to have been founded by Greek colons. The first historical documents dealing with the city date back to the Fifth century, which was then called ‘Ficocle’, changed in ad 997 in a letter by the then pope addressed to ‘ad locum qui dicitur Cervia’. Sea salt production began towards the end of the Eighth century and is still quite active as of today. Salt continues to be produced in the same way as it was eleven centuries ago: sun-dried sea water and nothing else. The salt maintains its natural humidity (2%) and is defined as a ‘sweet salt’ (sale dolce) not because it salts less , but as a result of its peculiar mild taste due to the limited presence of insoluble minerals (sulphide of magnesium, calcium and potassium as well as magnesium chloride) which give other salts a somewhat bitter flavour.The cost is 1.20 euro per kg, about three times higher than the iodised salt found in supermarkets.http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/brunel/images/buttons/smiley.gif Ciao

Try the link without the trailing ")" i.e. http://www.dampiersalt.com.au
and see what happens.

According to their website they generally ship the salt in 50,000 to 60,000 tonne ships but have filled just shy of 100,000 tonne ships. All with sea salt.

Hi Vittorio
Thanks for reading - and adding the extra information - it is always useful to have additional information!


And yes Phoenician Trader - the link works now