Chris Watts & Nanette Muir

Food & Drink

The blizzard moves in, wind is whipping up from the sea and snow is battering the side of the poly tunnels. Chris smiles and says, “This is where we harvest the salt from the sun.”

The poly tunnels hug a stretch of coastline in Northern Skye: there are four that sit facing nose to nose following the sea line. Three of the tunnels are full of a thin layer of salt and the third is used for the final drying process. The salt is produced using water from Loch Snizort which is pumped directly into the poly tunnels. It forms a very shallow lake and the slow, natural evaporation process produces crystals that retain all the trace minerals contained in the sea. The crystals are then collected, dried, sorted and packed ready to be shipped out.