Have you ever wondered how salt is made? How is the salt making process, how long does it take? If yes, let’s explore with Dr.Muoi about sea salt making through the content of the article below.

1. About making salt and salt

Salt making is associated with the salty taste of the sea and the salt people (the common name of people who live by making salt). As people often say: “Cheap as salt”. Right! Since many other spices have been introduced, salt has become cheaper and cheaper. But salt people still cling to the sea to live, they cannot give up making salt.

Quy trình làm muối — The profession of making salt is associated with the salty taste from the sea

Salt making – the profession that the salt people always anxiously look at the sky and earth. Only when the sun is strong, sea water can crystallize to form salt. If it’s sunny all day, but in the afternoon, there’s a thunderstorm, if you don’t collect salt in time, you will lose everything. Therefore, it can be said that salt people are most afraid of sudden thunderstorms.

Salt making – a profession that has to “sell your back to the sky, sell your face to the sea” from morning to afternoon to make pure white salt particles. The salty sea air and the smell of sweat soaked the back of his shirt, but the salt people were always smiling, their faces beaming with joy, carrying the burden of salt on their shoulders. For the salt people, making salt is not just a job to earn a living, but it is their life.

2. Is the salt making process difficult?

The job of making salt is really hard, and the income is precarious. To make the grain of salt that you eat every day is not simple, it is the hard work of the salt people. The salt production process is very complicated, including many stages:

Step 1: Collect salt water level 2

Initially, salt people will soak sand in sea water, then pick it up and transfer it to dry on a clay court. Under the sun, seawater evaporates, leaving white salt crystals that recrystallize on the sand grains. The salt people continue to take salt water of degree 1, ie sea water, to pour into this sand layer and filter it to get salt water of degree 2.

Phơi muối - Cách làm muối biển — Drying sand on the ground used to filter salt water level 2, degree 3 | Image source: Internet

Cách làm muối biển — Put sand into the filter tank to filter and collect salinity level 2, degree 3 | Image source: Internet

Các quy trình sản xuất muối biển — Drying in salt water level 3 on salt fields to wait for the salt to crystallize

Step 4: Harvest salt

The last step in the process of making salt from sea water is the harvesting step, which is also the step that salt people wait for the most. This harvest is done from about 2 to 4 pm, when the salt has recrystallized in the salt fields.

The salt harvesting is done entirely manually, with simple tools. Salt will be gathered into small, white piles. It is then put on wheelbarrows to be transported to storage tents or transported to salt processing facilities.

Quy trình làm muối từ nước biển — Drying in salt water level 3 on salt fields to wait for the salt to crystallize

Step 4: Harvest salt

The last step in the process of making salt from sea water is the harvesting step, which is also the step that salt people wait for the most. This harvest is done from about 2 to 4 pm, when the salt has recrystallized in the salt fields.

The salt harvesting is done entirely manually, with simple tools. Salt will be gathered into small, white piles. It is then put on wheelbarrows to be transported to storage tents or transported to salt processing facilities.

Harvesting salt in the salt fields by wheelbarrow

With this way of making sea salt, salt farmers have to wake up very early, be present in the salt field from 3 to 4 am to start drying sand and salt water level 3, until the afternoon can harvest.

The more sunny it is, the faster the water evaporates, the more salt is obtained. If it rains, salt production will be interrupted, even losing the whole working day. Therefore, salt farmers can only make salt on summer days, and in the rainy season, they have to do other jobs to earn income.