ANY food that we cook needs salt to taste better. Without it, nothing is worth eating. Less salty food is only best for those who have medical issues. The rest of us need and love salt.
Bago City is among the places in Negros Occidental that is into salt production.
A local rock salt producer in Bago shared his knowledge about salt production.
The whole process is done manually, said Lubin Salazar, a salt maker who leases an area in Barangay Sampinit, Bago City, for their salt production.
He said that the season of salt making starts in December of every year and ends in May.
“We only produce salt during dry season. So by May, when the dry season ends we have already produced stocks that can cater to the needs of the market for the next six months,” he shared.
The salt production starts with the collection of sea water. They put up a canal or a waterway that will collect sea water down to their deposits or shallow open pans.
By use of windmills spread strategically in their production area, they help pump sea water from the deposits down to small wells that also filter the presence of Algae. Clear salt water are then collected from the well and transferred to the salt pans and by evaporation, rock salts are created.
Salazar said that the process takes them a day and a half to complete the production.
Aside from Bago City, the towns of Pulupandan and San Enrique also produce salt, he said.