At Spiceburst, we want to know how our food is made and who made it, which is why we think it
is important to share the source of our basic ingredient with you.
We use sea salt from the Algarve region of Portugal because of the moist, flakiness of the
crystals, which helps our added ingredients stick to it. But the main reason is because we
believe in supporting companies like Necton
who are striving to create an ecological, sustainable salt economy. They use 2000 year old methods
to harvest salt from the Natural Reserve Ria Formosa, a protected natural park near the city of
Faro in Portugal. They use traditional salt pans that share an ecosystem with microalgae, brine
shrimp, flamingos, and storks. Necton is a company run by marine biologists that care about the
environment. In 2001, they received the Slow Food Award for Defense of Biodiversity and they are
certified by the French environmental organization Nature et Progres to be free of the industrial
contaminants sometimes found in mechanically harvested sea salt. We at Spiceburst are also
members of the Slow Food mevement.
How Sea Salt is Hand-Harvested at Necton
Necton's method of crystallizing their sea salt highlights the flavor of the trace elements
that are lacking in industrial-grade sea salt. Not only is this evident in the flavor, but also
in the color and shape of the salt crystals. Manual harvesting and natural evaporation minimizes
the impurity content and keeps the naturally grown crystals intact.
The salt marshes at Necton are essentially a protected ecosystem that abides by the rhythms of
nature, the seasons, and the limited intervention of man. The marshes consist
of large and small pans separated by banks that resist erosion from the winter storms.
In winter, the marshes are dormant, but still contain the salt-rich water from the summer harvest.
While the marshes are dormant, they are a paradise for migratory birds, such as pink
flamingos, blackwinged stilt, avocet, Kentish plover, egret, little tern and many others. By
April, the winter rains have mainly finished and the birds have begun their journey back
north.
Every Spring, the marnotos (salt harvesters) at Necton clean the mud deposits from their salt
pans and begin production anew. In April, they stream fresh sea water (150g salt per liter so
that it contains most of its original minerals) into each pan. In May, the water contains 250g of
salt per liter and it starts to accumulate sea salt on the bottom. From that point on, they
continuously add sea water that is 150g of salt per liter, thus creating layer upon layer of
sea salt.
In June, the sea salt is ready to be harvested. The marnoto uses a long wooden rake to pull the
sea salt that has collected in the pan to the outer edge. They take special care to remove the
sea salt without picking up any of the clay on the bottom of the pan.
Once the salt is harvested, it dries in the sun for five days to let the remaining water
evaporate, and to let the magnesium and iodine content absorb into the crystals. Then the sea
salt is stored and packaged with no additional processing.
