Older Bylines
Salt is amazing. I had no idea. It wasn’t until I was assigned this piece that I learned salt could form pyramidal crystals. Given the right conditions, I learned, halite grows outward in concentric squares to create hollow pyramids, which are called “hopper crystals” when other minerals make it, but “flake salt” when it’s halite. The result is highly coveted by gourmands the world over.
Slack Tide Sea Salt, a company based in York, Maine, harvests small batches of flake salt to sell. My assignment was to profile Slack Tide for a summer issue of Maine Magazine. I visited the facility, which was a series of what looked like greenhouses near a lovely coastal inlet, and was so enchanted by what I saw that I spent a month consuming all the information I could on the production of salt. I learned so much. For example, did you know there are enormous underground salt mines all over the country, and one of the biggest is in upstate New York? And in France, there are farms known for their method of hand-raking salt. The salt we use on our roads in the U.S. is imported primarily from Canada and Chile. And the lore surrounding salt is astounding. A great source, if you’re convinced, is Lot's Wife: Salt and the Human Condition, by Sallie Tisdale, one of my favorite essayists. The primary lesson I took from learning about salt is that it’s not all created equal. Ever since I visited them, I’ve had a jar of Slack Tide’s salt on my counter. Published by Maine Magazine in August 2022. Read the piece here.
