![]() ![]() These salts tend to have lower trace mineral content than other salts, giving them a stronger salty taste. Flake salts can form as irregular shavings, pyramidal shapes, boxes, or potato chip-like laminated crystals. The technologies used as well as atmospheric conditions can yield varying crystal structures. Flake salt may occur naturally but can also be produced by a variety of methods, including boiling brine over metal salt pans or evaporating it in greenhouse solar evaporators. Their structure is a result of differing growth rates between the faces and edges of the crystal, an effect that can be achieved in various ways. But we are beginning to turn the corner, and we’re excited that this love for salts is growing nationwide.Flake salt refers to a category of salt characterized by their dry, plate-like (" lamellose") crystals. “Creating a category and then figuring out how to sell that category is not straightforward. Almost a decade old now, they’re still figuring out the specialty food industry, he says, and dealing with the loss of sales during the pandemic. Making artisanal products, and a brand around it, takes time and is not easy, Jacobsen admits. Sometimes we must do supplemental feeding and planting, to ensure that there is successive blooming throughout the season,” she adds. “Oftentimes this requires observing the surrounding environment for a full season, to see what exists there. That’s why their hives are part of a non-migratory beekeeping operation. There are several factors that contribute to huge losses in honeybee colony populations due to this migratory practice,” Schmiedel explains. The vast majority of our honeybees travel to the almond pollination in California each year. “A huge obstacle that beekeepers in the northwest face is the influence that migratory beekeeping has on the practice as a whole. The company's master beekeeper Emily Schmiedel at work in urban Portland. Though there’s no certification for organic honey in the US, Jacobsen explains, because foraging grounds and crops for bees that are certified organic are limited, they hope their work will make locals more mindful of how beekeeping can be done in a natural way. Emily Schmiedel, the company’s master beekeeper, manages the Hive program, which hopes to spread better information about organic beekeeping practices. ![]() After beginning to successfully navigate the niche salt market, Jacobsen acquired a small Oregon business producing honey, Bee Local. There’s another division of Jacobsen salts that’s quite connected to the natural world: honey. “I’ve been thinking more and more about how we fit into the natural world,” he says. For instance, their waste water (left from extracting the salts) is sent to Farm Power, a local enterprise turning cow manure into gas. In the meantime, he’s working on how they can repurpose and recycle materials through their own manufacturing process. With more traffic out at sea, he does worry that the polluted waters may affect by products such as sea salt. ![]() Given that Jacobsen works closely with nature, he’s keen to not only showcase the beauty of these American salts on the palette, but also help preserve the waters they come from. That’s why we want to be that brand for the US.”Īs Jacobsen grows his influence in the US and has expanded his operation, he does worry about thing: keeping the seas he sources from clean and free of pollution. There really hasn’t been a homegrown brand to get salt from American shores and turn it into a culinary experience. Salt-making became more uniform and there was less thought, technique, and care that went into the world of salts during that period, and thereafter. “I think it may have something to do with the Industrial Revolution. When asked why a culture of sea salt has been lacking (or rather limited) in America, Jacobsen is left puzzled himself. “It was these local businesses in Portland that really turned us into a business as well and supported our salt-making craziness.” Similarly, Providore Fine Foods, a boutique food shop in Portland, sent them their first check, Jacobsen says. Popular ice cream chain Salt & Straw put the sea salt in their shops. That was followed by two-and-half-years of renting U-Haul trucks and making weekly pilgrimages to the coast, and then, by three intensive days of salt-making at a shared kitchen in Portland.īut all this effort was paying off as Jacobsen secured his first buyer, New Seasons Market, a local grocery store chain, and more accounts quickly followed, including restaurants and bars that would feature Jacobsen’s local sea salt in their dishes.
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