Picking Salt

Simple table salt is readily available and reasonably priced at any of the markets found on St. John. It was not always this way. Salt, which is the only rock that people eat, was once an expensive and sought after commodity. Its most essential use was as a food preservative in times before refrigeration. Moreover, salt greatly improves the taste and palatability of food. Salt is also an essential mineral that regulates biological functions without which human beings could not survive. In ancient days salt was so valuable that it was used as money having a value equal to gold, thus explaining the saying, "he's not worth his salt."

In pre-tourism times on St. John, salt, although not quite worth its weight in gold, was still an expensive and hard to come by commodity. St. Johnians, however, had the option of collecting salt, free of charge, from a specialized natural environment found on the island called the salt pond. There are over two dozen salt ponds on St. John, but the best one for salt collection is found just behind Drunk Bay on the southeastern corner of the island at a place aptly named Salt Pond.

Because of its location on this arid and windswept part of the island, Salt Pond is the most likely place to encounter crystallized salt. Saltwater enters the pond from the sea by seepage at high tides and by waves breaking over the surface during storms. Salt Pond is one of the only places on St. John that is below sea level. This condition prevents significant amounts of pond water from flowing back out to sea. Constant, intense sunlight and ever-present tradewinds encourage an exceptionally high rate of evaporation. When rain is scarce, the water becomes extremely salty. Water can only hold a certain amount of salt in solution and when the salinity of the pond reaches that point, salt dissolved in the water crystallizes.

As the water level continues to drop and more and more water evaporates, a layer of salt is left along the edges of the pond. The longer the dry period, the higher the temperature, and the stronger the winds, the more this salt layer will extend towards the center of the pond and the thicker the layer becomes.

You can collect salt during these times by scooping up the salt with your hands, if it is still wet and soft. If the salt layer is dry and hard use a knife or other sharp tool. (If you've forgotten to bring a container, just walk over to nearby Drunk Bay where there is a great deal of flotsam, and you'll probably find something you can use.) After the salt is collected, drain off as much water as possible and put it in the sun to dry further. You may be left with fine powdery salt, which you can enjoy on your food immediately. If the dried crystals are large, you will first need to grind them up or pound them out.

Olivia Callwood from Jost Van Dyke remembers the days when she collected salt either from the government salt pond at Salt Island or, in times of extreme drought, from the salt pond in back of White Bay on Jost Van Dyke.

"We collected the salt early in the morning" she said, "because the saltwater pond and the mud gets very hot and will stay hot well into the afternoon." Miss Olivia explained that the salt was collected in baskets or other containers with holes at the bottom to allow the water to drain out. Next, the salt was "burned" to dry it thoroughly. "You get some rockstones and make a fire and heat the stones until they turn red. Then you make holes in the salt to receive the hot stones and take a shovel and put the stones in the holes. You can hear them stones talking as they dry the water out of the salt, Crack, Crack!"

The salt obtained from salt ponds is particularly tasty and healthy. It contains all the minerals that are present in the sea, which include all those essential to the human body. This fact has led to the practice of soaking the body in salt ponds as a way to derive medicinal benefits from the concentrated mineral content of the pond water.

So during the next dry spell, take the short and easy Drunk Bay Trail from Salt Pond Bay over to the salt pond and bring home a sample of this delicious and nutritious natural salt. Enjoy the experience!