Lake Grassmere is Best Taken with a Pinch of Salt…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

If you are driving northwards from Christchurch to Picton, about 40 km (approx 25 miles) south of Blenheim you will suddenly come across a flash of pink or bright white (or both) on the landscape.

This is Lake Grassmere, a natural lagoon covering 17 square kilometers.

It’s right on the coast, separated only by a thin strip of beach, it has no natural inflow and is geographically in a location where strong warm winds predominate and rainfall is low.

The lake is also naturally shallow and has a high salinity, making it ideal for the production of sea salt.

Before salt production began here the lake was often muddy in winter and very dusty in summer and it was during the summer months that natural deposits of salt were found.

In 1943 this prompted salt production on a larger scale and in 2005 Lake Grassmere produced half of New Zealand’s domestic salt production.

However due to the demand for salt from industry (notably the pulp and paper mills and the freezing works) New Zealand still has to import half  it’s salt requirements from Australia and the Caribbean.

The lake has been divided into seperate ponds suitable for solar evaporation, sea water is pumped in and moved between the ponds over several months and as evaporation takes place the salinity increases and crystalised salt forms.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The salt at the end of the production is white, but during the evaporation period algae (Dunaliella salina) living in the brine take on a red pigment known as haematochrome due to the high salt concentrations.

This phenomonon also accounts for why the highly salty Red Sea is so named.

As we drive past we can clearly see the agae’s hue from the road and then flashes of white of the salt piles.

I took the photos from the moving car so reflections in the glass window maar the view somewhat, the colours are more intense in real life.

I don’t know how often I have driven past here in my life… I’ve lost count, but it’s always been a place that intrieged me and it’s taken me until now to do some research and find out more.

I cetainly never realised that salt production here accounted for half of New Zealand’s domestic needs.

No doubt, many Kiwi’s like me have driven past it often, completely unaware of  the significance of Grassmere’s small hive of industry because it sits almost in the middle of no-where but is actually an important player in it’s niche within the New Zealand economy.

… or maybe they do, but they take it with a pinch of salt.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Background information source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Grassmere

Bacalhau à Gomes De Sá (Salt Cod and Potato Cape Verde)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Whilst this post is not from my Cape Verde series of Photos, it is inspired by it.

One of the dishes that I discovered when we were in the town of Espargo on the island of Sal was called  “Bacalhau à Gomes De Sá “  which is  a salt cod recipe.

I know that salt cod isn’t easily available everywhere in the world, but if you can get some locally then I’d strongly recommend this recipe because it tastes fabulous.

One of the very first blog posts I ever made, were step by step instructions on how to “deal with” your dried salt cod once you got it home.   http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/bacalhau-salt-cod-and-how-to-prepare-it/

For the purposes of this recipe I’ll assume that you have already done all the steps from the link above and are now ready to proceed with the already prepared fish.

Since the soaking and cooking process needs to be done in advance this isn’t a quick recipe to make, but a shortcut that I highly recommend is to buy as much salt cod as you can at one time, do all the preparation in one hit and then divide the resulting flaked fish into meal sized portions.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Freeze whatever fish you are not using for this recipe and you will have a stash of salt cod in your freezer for much quicker recipe preparation on the next occasions.

I experimented quite a bit, tweaking my recipe a few times until I finally replicated the great flavours that we enjoyed in Cape Verde.

Bacalhau à Gomes De Sá
1kg salt cod fish (2 lbs soaked, cooked, de-boned, flaked per instructions in the link above)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions (diced)
4 garlic cloves (minced)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
white pepper (to taste)
6 large potatoes
6  eggs ( hard-boiled)
parsley

Preheat your oven to 200 C (400 F)
Peel your potatoes and dice them into small to medium chunks so that all of the pieces are the same size, cover  with water and boil until until  just cooked though. (I usually hard boil my eggs in the same pot with the potatoes to save pots, water etc.)

Once the potatoes are cooked and drained slice them roughly so that they are in small pieces all roughly the same size.

Put the olive oil into a fry pan and gently saute the onion and garlic until golden but not browned.

Peel the hard boiled eggs and roughly chop 5 of them, but carefully slice the last egg into rounds for decoration.

Mix, but don’t mash! the flaked, cooked, salt cod with the potato, onion and garlic mixture, then add the nutmeg and pepper and parsley. If the mixture is too dry, a very small amount of water can be added to make it only just stick together.

Spoon the mix into a baking dish and lay out the decorative egg rounds on the top. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes until it is completely warmed though.

Pedra Lume… the Future and the Past…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This post continues yesterday’s, where we hired a 4-wheel drive vehicle and set out to explore Sal’s biggest salt mine …

We take the road to Pedra Lume, where the salt processing is done. Our guide pops inside first and talks to someone he knows in there,  he comes out smiling, Yes, we have permission to go inside and take photographs.

This shed was huge…  it once held tons of salt for export, now in just one tiny space at the end of it  their entire supply was stacked up…

What was once the main processing area was in total ruin…

Pedra Lume is the oldest settlement on Sal, and once thrived, but today it has few inhabitants,  and they are mostly fishermen instead of salt miners these days.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We did see a large signboard with architects drawings  envisaging a proposed hotel complex for Pedra Lume.  We didn’t see any actual construction, but since we visited in 2007, maybe something has since been completed.

The kids in the houses mimicked “taking a photo” and then grinned and pulled faces at us.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sadly, depletion of the salt deposits, transport costs, the world market for salt and general running costs meant that  a fraction of the original mining operation is still in working order… it just doesn’t make enough money to expand the business more.

Pedra Lume is the oldest settlement on Sal, and was once a thriving community. Today it’s a shadow of it’s former self and the few remaining inhabitants are mostly fishermen and not salt miners these days.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Volcano, a Discovery and a Name Change…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Another post in my retroctive tour of  one of the islands in the Cape Verde  group, visited in 2007.

During our stay we discovered that the Island of Sal has not always been named “Sal.

Discovered in 1460 it was first called  “Llana” and the islands biggest (and pretty much only) geographical featutue is the extinct  “Pedra de Lume” volcano.

One day salt was found in the crater of the volcano and the island found itself an important industry, important enough that the islands’ name was changed to “Sal“

(“Salt” in Portuguese).

We hired a 4 wheel drive for the day and set out into the desert to explore….

Since the salt mine area is mostly found  in the centre of an extinct volcano… we need to find a way inside it. First we drive up the side as far as we can and  then this tunnel though the rim… is the only way in or out…  it’s  rather narrow so we descide to walk through it rather than drive.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It was soooooooooo hot outside and soooo cool in the tunnel LOL.. It wasn’t hard to linger to take a few photos.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

There isn’t much clearance either side of the tunnel… glad we didn’t attempt to squeeze the car in here.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Himself is the tall one in the photo.. he’s 6’5 ” (196 cm)
The young guy in the red number “7″ tee shirt  is a guy we found outside town trying to hitchhike back to his house, which, it transpired is situated in an even lonelier patch of wilderness off the lonely side road that we needed to take to get to the salt mine. On the drive he asked Himself if we wanted a guided tour of the area and thus became our inpromtu guide for a few hours…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sadly the language barrier (he spoke mostly Portuguese/Creole) meant that we never actually worked out what his name was.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We saw only one other car the whole trip out this way so I think we saved him from a very long and hot walk home.

Himself is learning portuguese (but four years down the track with his study is nowdays vastly more profficient) even so they had fun having a decent but sometimes halting conversation in creole/Portguese together… a little English helped too..

He was very friendly and delighted with our donation for his “guide” services and he also scored Himself’s cap that he had taken a shine to.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

My photos are mostly back views of everyone, and our new friend loved having his photo taken, but for me, internet cautious as usual, I’ve pixilated the parts that we are in.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Pink salt…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)