Making Salt

Many people are not aware how salt is produced. Well I can tell you that in Malta it is a very common sight to see salt pans near the sea with salt forming in them. It is actually quite a normal and easy method to produce salt. All you need is sea water, a container and sunshine. At various places in Malta, salt pans are dug out of rock, as seen in the above photo. Then sea water is poured in them at the beginning of summer, and then let nature do the rest. 

Usually by mid-August or early September, the water, fermented by the sun had turned into salt. The workers then collect it in piles and you have sea salt. Some of it may be refined and sold to customers, but the coarse sea salt is also in great demand. It is also very important to keep dogs and cats away from these pans, for obvious reasons.