Only one company in Oregon harvests sea salt; here’s how it’s done
Salt is a cooking ingredient that is used everywhere in the world for flavoring and food preservation. However, despite the state’s long coastline, only one company in Oregon makes sea salt. The company is Jacobsen Salt Company, and it makes salt from the ocean.
The company began to harvest salt from the Pacific Ocean at Netarts [pronounced NEE-tarts] Bay in 2011. Netarts Bay is near Tillamook. The company makes both flake and kosher salts. Flake salt has larger grains. It is added to foods right before serving. Kosher salt has smaller grains. It is used in things like cooking and pickling. (The company also makes a fine sea salt — very small grains — for cooking, baking, and seasoning; this kind of salt comes from Italy.)
Making salt is a long process. “It all starts with our location, the pristine waters of Netarts Bay,” says the company. Netarts Bay is “a relatively shallow estuary that is home to millions of oysters and other bivalves, which help filter the seawater. This helps create water that is high in salinity and low in turbidity, which has also been essentially pre-filtered before it reaches our saltworks.”
Even so, the company pumps seawater from Netarts Bay and filters the water again. Then the water is boiled to remove minerals. The water is then moved to evaporation pans where it is heated to create the salt.
“Making salt is an art form, much like cooking,” says the company on its website. “Our flaky sea salt is a result of constant heating, filtering, and cleaning our brine. When everything is just right, flake salt crystals begin to form on the brine surface. Once they grow into their natural pyramidal structures, the crystals become too heavy and [fall] gently to the bottom, creating an effect in our salt pans that resembles gentle snowfall.”
The process takes a couple of weeks. Workers scoop out the salt from the bottom of the pans. Then the salt is dried, and the grains are sorted by size. The final product is packaged and sold to customers.
-This story was first published in ESOL News Oregon August 5, 2022.
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Discuss
- The water of Netarts Bay is described in the article as “pristine.” Look this word up in an online English-English dictionary such as Longman. What synonyms do you know for this word? How many syllables does it have? Which syllable has the stress? Why is it important for Jacobsen Salt to come from pristine water?
- Search online for the price of a package of Jacobsen Salt. It’s expensive! Do you think it’s worth it to spend extra money on basic ingredients like salt? Can you taste the difference in your food? Which foods do you spend more money on than others?
- Which special foods do you buy from your country, such as green coffee beans from Eritrea or masa harina from Mexico? What makes their taste different than American food? Search online to find pictures and more information of special ingredients you like to use and show your classmates.
- Jacobsen Salt is special because it comes from Oregon. Do you know about other food that is from Oregon? There is Tillamook Cheese, Stumptown Coffee, and many different products made with hazelnuts and Marionberries. Which of these have you tasted? Which would you like to try in the future?
Write
- Did you ever consider the steps required to make sea salt? After reading this article, now you know! It’s not as simple as you might think. What is the creation process of some other food you want to learn about? Chocolate? Flour? Tofu? Find a video on YouTube and then write a brief description of the steps in your own words.
- The Jacobsen Salt Company website says “Making salt is an art form, much like cooking.” With enough care and attention, anything can be an art form, from writing an essay to making your bed. Describe something that you do well and take pride in doing, so much so that it could be considered an art form.
- The Jacobsen Salt Company website says “Making salt is an art form, much like cooking.” It is said that when you cook with love in your heart, people can taste it in the food. Conversely, if you cook without your heart in it, the food doesn’t taste as good. Something is missing. Describe something that you have done poorly with a bad result. What happened? Did you run out of time? Were you distracted? Did you have a different thing you wished you were doing instead?
- Salt is a very basic way of seasoning food. What are other ways that flavor can be added to food? What other flavors can make food taste good in addition to salt? What makes food spicy or sweet? Write about the different spices and sauces that are used in a dish that you like to eat or cook. Use rich description to help us feel like we can really taste it!
Sources
Here Is Oregon. “Salt Harvesting on the Oregon Coast.” www.youtube.com, 27 July 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcHy8tS_pTQ.
“Jacobsen Salt Co. | Portland OR.” Jacobsen Salt Co., jacobsensalt.com/. Accessed 2 Aug. 2022.
Image from Jacobsen Salt. Used with permission.
