When the island is at its hottest, most desolate, and dry, this precious commodity is produced by the salt ponds that lie scattered around St. John. Salt has always been important to the islands especially before refrigeration, as it offered a way to preserve the small amount of resources that were available. Some years it has not been dry enough to harvest the salt from the salt ponds. This year though there has been a prolonged dry spell which has allowed the salt water in the shallow salt pond to evaporate leaving behind these lovely salt crystals.
This has been on my bucket list for years!
When we arrived to collect salt there were people spread out all over the pond. Pants rolled up, knee deep, stepping through thick layers of crusty salt crystals, sludgy muck working its way between the toes. Some collected just a small handful, others collected large buckets and bags full of the salty rocks. It was a neat experience to look around and see so many people all just interested in one thing, collecting salt.
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| Just behind Salt Pond Bay is this rank smelling salt pond. Let me just say the smell emanating from this pond makes you second guess the eating of the salt from there. Quite the stench! |
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| Even my cousin Krystal and her daughter Victoria and family got to join in on the fun while they were visiting! |
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| Eventually we just used our hands to scoop up the crusty layer of salt just under the surface. |
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| You had to walk out a bit through the crusty salt crystal layer. After a few minutes your feet and hands began to stink. It was cruel, the salt gave you cuts and then the salt water made them sting! |
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After collecting you clean and rinse your salt, then set it out in the sun to dry or put in an oven with the pilot light going to dry it out. We found a coffee grinder works quite well for getting the salt to the right consistency.
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| Love the smiles! |
Of course you have to soak in Salt Pond Bay after working so hard to collect your salt from the salt pond. That's one of the rewards for all your hard work. . . that and of course fresh sea salt!
C
