Rio Maior Salt "Fonte Salina" - Pack of 2

Candeeiros is a limestone mountain region with many fissures in the rock, which enables the rain water to penetrate forming undercurrents.
One of these undercurrents passes across a very extensive and deep rock-salt mine and feeds the well in the centre of the pans. This water arises seven times saltier than the sea water.
This rock-salt occupies the region of the Portuguese Estremadura region, between Leiria and Torres Vedras (about 100 km). It was formed millions of years ago.

Artisanal Salt come from all over the world, these days in many hues and crystal forms, textures. But this blizzard comes from the only inland salt farm still active in Europe located twenty miles from the sea. 

Salinas de Rio Maior have eight centuries of history and are covered in full-protected area of Natural Park of Serra de Aires and Candeeiros, surrounded by wildlife, natural flora, mountains, water vineyards and lots of sun, a well preserved environment away from pollution, a beautiful place to visit.

There are three methods used to produce salt: solar (the oldest method of salt production) like in Rio Maior, evaporation and rock mining, called halite wich Loulé mines in Algarve are an extraordinary example. 

Rio Maior Gourmet Salt fonte salina, is hundred percent natural, remarkable by its high percentage of chlorides which makes it an intense salt that immediately elevates the flavour of the food therefore should be used more sparingly.

This salt is white, clean with loose-dry aspect an invitation to use it in the most different dishes, salads, grilled, and baked. Salt is the rare ingredient that can enhance the flavor of pretty much any food it’s sprinkled on.

The benefits of natural products are widely known and this Sal de Fonte Salina is an indispensable substitute of current salt, in fact why use salt that has been refined that can contain chemicals used to removed all its natural elements, important to health?

Flower of Salt fonte salina, is the crème de la crème of finishing salts. Another indispensable condiment a crystal thin cover harvested from the surfaces of salt ponds. This wealth comes from the immemorial art of collecting and fixing crystallization.

The flower of salt should be used after the confection and before serving, to refine the seasoning. It has the ability to awaken the flavors of the dish, allowing a more pleasant and intense flavour.

Flower of Salt 250g

Gourmet natural Salt 1Kg

At the end of the twelfth century these salt lakes were further north in a place called, Marinha Velha, feeding only six tanks.

The actual curious irregular sizes tanks were opened due to a shepherd occasional discovery who tried to end the thirst of their animals by a lake which water was very salty. Soon the primitive lakes dried and this lake or well was explore and became the current Bica salt-pans, also called “Salinas de Rio Maior”.

These salt-pans can be found 3 km away from Rio Maior, in a valley at the bottom of Candeeiros Mountain. Considered a natural wonder, once the sea is about 30 km., in spring these tanks are full with salt water giving rise to a white tall salt pyramids.

 

Salt has been made in Rio Maior since 1177 regarding the oldest document referring to the Salinas, but it is believed that salt was already explored in Pre-historic times.

One portion of this saltworks once belong to knights Templar who may have used the salt sales to help fund the Third Crusade as Mark Bitterman refers in “salted”: In fact the “Queijo de Sal” – Cheese wheel of salt still made in Rio Maior salt works is probably the last remaining example of this once-common style of currency.

The objects used to work the salt, the work traditions implemented in salt extraction, the tiny village with streets of stone and wooden houses with its alike wooden keys, and the wooden rulers with its write down daily expenses inscriptions, take us to a special place where salt had the highest economic importance where the methods and techniques used in collecting the salt are ancient rituals of Arabic and Roman origin barely changed.

A whole place witnessing the world’s most valued commodity at the time.

Besides being used as a spice in food, salt was widely used for food preservation, conservation of fur and his preparation.

Salt was also the payment method of the working day, hence the origin of the name, salary.

The use of salt has centuries of history in Portugal. The quality of the Portuguese salt was recognized as excellent since the Middle Ages and was considered the best for the salting of the meat that had to be shipped, unlike other types of salt from Europe that were either too weak or too strong and corrosive.

Revealing excellent for pickled herring and was not affected by long sea voyages. Indeed, the Portuguese salt was more befitting the methods used to preserve in northern Europe.

The typical Portuguese salt production in “marinhas” became recommended - giving time for the diversity of thickness of the salt crystals - “some appropriate for slow penetration in meat and cheeses others for fish salting..", says Mário Vieira de Sá a salt expert of the twentieth century, also referring that the good weather conditions across our country is one of the main factors why Portuguese salt is to be considered one of the best salt´s in the world.