Salt

I am reading an excellent book called Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. Throughout history salt was searched for, traded for and fought over. Salt = wealth. Words such as salary and salvation find their roots in the word "salt". Mr. Kurlansky points out that "Trade routes that remain major thoroughfares today were established, alliances built, empires secured and revolutions provoked - all for something that fills the oceans and bubbles up from springs."

Just up the road from us is the town of Margheria di Savoia. It is here that there is the largest productive salt-works in Italy. It produces 5,500,000 quintals (1q=220.46 lbs.) of salt annually in 2470 acres of saltpans. The salt is harvested from June to August. It seems amazing to me but the peoples of the region have been extracting salt from the marshy areas of Margherita di Savoia since at least the 6th century B.C.!

Here is a box of table salt from Margherita di Savoia. You can also get larger crystals which are good as a cooking agent...We have had delicious moist fish that was buried in salt and cooked in the oven.