Flor de sal, flower salt from Portugal

In the Algarve of Portugal there is a region that is traditionally called salinas. Here it was known that there were large reserves of salt. They just didn't do anything with it. The site was used as a rubbish dump. One day, a smart businessman came up with the idea to mine the salt. This is how Europe got its own Himalayan salt. It was called flor de sal, probably after the French example fleur de sel. Both terms mean flower salt. Incidentally, sea salt is also extracted in Portugal under the same name; flor de sal. That makes it somewhat difficult to distinguish them. The good news is that these two salt types are not inferior in quality to each other. Moreover, they are both much healthier than table salt or table salt diluted with synthetic iodine.

Portuguese flower salt

The French have Celtic sea salt. There is a large extraction of Himalayan salt in the Himalayas. But healthy salt production doesn't stop there. In Portugal they also have a salt mine where healthy salt containing all 84 minerals is kept up. This salt is not refined and that is a good thing. Refined salt can lead to a variety of diseases. In fact, Western humans are poisoning themselves by eating a lot of sodium chloride, or table salt.

It is not the first time that the Portuguese salt mines have been exploited. Portugal was part of the Roman Empire for a long time and 2000 years ago salt was already produced in Portugal and exported all over Europe. In the tenth century, a Portuguese countess donated the salt mine to a monastery in Portugal. The salt mine remained in operation until well into the 15th and 16th century. Portugal can finance an important part of its history and expansion drive through the European salt trade that has made the country rich.

Three kilometers from the Portuguese village of Rio Maior is a very special salt mine. An underground river passes through a layer of salt millions of years old. Salt dissolves in water. This makes the river water seven times saltier than seawater. It is known that in the Middle Ages this salt water was brought up with buckets to form a salt pan through which the water evaporates and the salt becomes available to people. Today, a salt pan is still used, but the salt river water is directed upwards by a motor pump. In this way, 2000 tons of flower salt are produced annually; the healthiest salt there is.

Fleur de sel from the Steenberg brand can be crumbled in your fingers. The crystals themselves are a bit big to put on your food like that. It is a bit more difficult because the salt does not come from a salt shaker; you have to pick up the salt from a jar to use it. This is partly due to the fact that the salt retains more moisture; it does not fit through the holes of a salt shaker. But dry salt from a salt shaker comes at a high price; it is bad for your health, while flor de sal is very healthy.

There are two different types of salt from Portugal in which all 84 minerals and trace elements are still present; salt from mines and salt from the sea. Flor de sal is also called saltcream in English-speaking countries. Another salt from the same region is natural Algarve seasalt. This type of salt is extracted in the same way as Celtic Sea Salt, namely from the sea. Flor de sal, however, is mined, just like Himalayan salt. Extraction is different in Portugal than in the Himalayas. The salt layers are first mixed with water, after which the salt water is pumped up. Then the salt water is dried after which the salt is obtained.

Himalayan salt is a bit pinkish. Celtic Sea Salt is gray but flor de sal is just plain white. The salt exploitation has been re-established by Mr João Navalho after it had fallen into disuse for some time to produce salt here. He was born in Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony. In Mozambique you can also find salt fields that are no longer used. Navalho wants to operate a salt mine there too.

The salt mines from which flower salt can be extracted can also be found in the Netherlands, but here they are exploited by DSM, which directly extracts the 83 healthy minerals from the salt and depletes the natural product to sodium chloride. This makes the salt easy to sprinkle, but it also becomes a sickening poison! In the early 21st century, the government is somewhat concerned about the fact that so many people get sick from salt. But that only applies to refined salt that is supplied by DSM, among others. DSM makes healthy salt containing all 84 minerals unhealthy through a process that is referred to by the marketing term 'cleaning'. Nothing is cleaned at all! The salt is extracted from deep layers of the earth after which it is refined so that only one mineral remains; sodium chloride.

The government in turn is not clever by trying to curb the addition of salt in food. Firstly, this is not possible at all because the companies have the freedom to make the food as salty as they want. Politicians and business are run by the same people; hence it is actually business that is in power. This applies especially to large companies such as DSM, but of course also to a Unilever that supplies the products with sodium chloride instead of healthy unrefined salt. The government would do a tremendous job by forcing companies to use whole, unrefined salt instead of sodium chloride. This salt has no pathogenic properties.