Maine Sea Salt Company

After our trip to Wass Island Preserve we drove to Marshfield, Maine where the Maine Sea Salt Company is located.  Their web site said they offer free tours May through October from 8am - 4pm - most days.  I e-mailed ahead as requested just to make sure we could get a tour.

The company was founded in 1998 by Steve and Sharon Cook.

We parked by the side of their house and headed into the store.  Steve soon came out of the house and started our tour.

The sea water comes from Buck’s Harbor, Maine.  It’s brought in 7,000 gallons at a time every few days.  Maine Sea Salt is evaporated in shallow pools in green houses (solar houses).  The green houses are solar stills, evaporating the sea water using the sun for the heat source.

The sea water is pumped into the first set of solar houses to allow anything in the water to settle out and to reduce the sea water to 50% salinity.

This is not salt!  

This is debris and other things contained in the sea water.

The pools are kept shallow, too deep a pool will not heat quickly enough in a day's cycle. The amount of sun and its position in the sky determine how quickly the water evaporates. Just like farming, the weather is very important.

The water is filtered and reduced to 70% in another set of green houses.

House #2

The water is finally pumped to the finishing house for making salt. Here the pool completely evaporates leaving behind the sea salt.

Snow shovels for scooping up salt.

This is sea salt!

The salt is placed in bins to further drain.

The salt is than taken to the production area where it is ground. The salt when ground releases more moisture from the crystals.

Cuisinart’s used to grind the salt crystals into various sizes.

They layer the damp salt between linen towels to remove any remaining moisture. The salt is never artificially heated in a kiln, nor is it washed. Maine Sea Salt is then sifted, to separate various crystal sizes for packaging.

Smoked salt is smoked with a real wood fire in small batches.

Different types of woods for smoking salt.

Steve showing Mark the smoking process.

Very small batches are smoked at a time.  It usually takes about 10 hours for a batch.

Salt production is seasonal, during the summer months.  Maine Sea Salt is sold throughout the United States, in Health food stores, Specialty food shops, and high end restaurants. 

Steve told us that the company has prospered and they have just purchased another 20 acres of land and have started building more solar houses.

Steve was very nice and we enjoyed the tour.  Of course, purchases were made!