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A TRADITIONAL SALTWORKS rightimg
On a remote black sand beach, farmers harvest natural sea salt under the swaying coconut palms. The black sand sparkles with crystals of volcanic debris from Gunung Agung, Bali's most sacred volcano.

In the early morning twilight, the saltmakers descend the gently sloping beach to the ocean's edge. A hand-carved yolk upon which hangs two buckets fashioned from the sinewy leaves of the Lontar Palm is carried over their shoulders.

Wading out into the calm blue waters, the buckets are filled and the saltmakers climb up the gentle slope to sow their seeds in the waiting beds of sand. Just as a farmer prepares his seedbed with intense Zen artistry, the saltmaker rakes his black sand beds to perfection. For once the bed is smooth like glass, the saltwater is sprinkled over the top and the seed of salt is sown.
As the sun rises high above, the saltmakers retreat to their shaded palm thatched cottages. Only when gentle sea breeze soutles the day's heat and the sun descends into the western sky do the artisans return to the black sand beds.
Guided by generations of experience, the saltmakers harvest the uppermost layer of sand. The water has evaporated leaving the sand rich with the salt and brittle with the baking of the sun. These crisp sand shards are placed in woven vessels and carried back to the saltmakers' cottages.
In the beachfront cottages, the woven vessels of sand are rinsed over hand-carved wooden drums. The water leaches the salts from the sand into the drum below.
the sand is left behind. This is the saltwater brine.

The collection of brine is a slow process and involves many periods of leaching and resting to ensure the removal of all sediments. Once enough of the brine is collected, the saltmaker must raise his eyes to the sky to wait for proper signs - a freak storm on an otherwise sunny day can destroy a harvest in second flat. The saltmaker must be absolutely sure.

The brine evaporates in halved bamboo timbers under tropical sun. The evaporation process can take anywhere from 1-3 days. The resulting salt grains are harvested young, so their fragile crystalline structures can be layered into bamboo skin cones and allowed to drain. Hand-crafting Balinese sea salts is an incredibly slow and labor-intensive process. Each small batch requires weeks of hand panning and grading to produce the perfect grain. Our quality is a testimony to the artisan nature of this age-old craft.
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