Our Story
Isle of Wight Sea Salt
I started thinking about producing Sea Salt when moving back to the Island from Somerset in 2015. I had seen a programme about sea salt looking at production abroad and in the Uk and the thought came to me “why on earth doesn’t anyone on the Island do this”.
Having trained as a musician and taught for many years in Somerset, I felt it was time to look at a new career. My father was in farming, so maybe this was in my blood after all – sea salt harvesting is farming the sea. I was brought up helping my father to milk cows and doing odd jobs on farms with the Kentish countryside in my blood.
My experiments started with a slow cooker filled with seawater without the lid, as I knew enough about evaporation at that early stage to understand that the lid needed to be off..... this progressed to a small fleet of slow cookers. Various ways to evaporate seawater using wind and sun then emerged on a site I found in Yafford, belonging to Joy and Keith Verrinder. This same site is currently home to Wight Salt, producing sea salt naturally and sustainably.
I discussed all this at length with my best mate Lorne (Admiral Lobster) and after numerous bottles of red required to, of course, debate in earnest the finer points of the operation, we started in July 2018.
The Sea is the centre stage for all Wight Salt products. The delicious and innovative Seasoning Sprays, the Piccalilli which packs a real flavour punch, using ancient methods of brining with sea water and of course the flagship Salt which has a rare sweetness of taste.
The History of Salt production around Lymington and the Isle of Wight has been long neglected. This and the watercycle, the science of evaporation and how sea salt is harvested will be a developing theme with resources and talks planned for 2022.
Lorne and I are enjoying the moment and look forward to sharing all of this as it develops. Here’s to sustainability by using the abundance of the sea and unlocking its hidden treasures in many diverse ways for years to come!
Simon Davis / Owner