a story about salt
Aug. 8th, 2007 05:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aslantkirk and i are now hidden away in a blue room in the shelburne inn for the second half of our honeymoon. this morning we walked down to see haystack rock in cannon beach, and then drove north to an antique mall in seaside. we navigated some crowded sidewalks full of dispicable humanity (most of it young and with a melting ice cream cone in its hand, or hollering at the top of its lungs while walking at a very slow pace through the crowd), and found some treasures. i bought a vintage kitchen scoop with a red painted handle, and a star-shaped cookie cutter with a red painted handle to match some other vintage cookie cutters i have.
in any case, aside from the antique mall, kirk and i were eager to escape hellish seaside as soon as possible, just as soon as we could find a bathroom. walking to the public bathrooms entailed crossing a bridge, which had a large bronze medallion proclaiming the saltwater river below to be the location of lewis and clark's saltworks. and then i was seized with an urge to buy some local salt. reading![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nevers's account of a week of local eating alongside barbara kingsolver's new book on a year of local eating (animal vegetable miracle), i had the idea that i should obtain some precious local salt if at all possible, because it seems to be a hard local commodity to find.
inquiries at a gift shop steered us to a local museum, where a woman pointed us to a disappointingly small packet on a lower shelf. i picked it up and then put it down: in large letters across the bottom of the attached card it read NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. i said, oh, no thanks, we're looking for edible salt. she gave me a look, and then said some very sarcastic things about the usda and whether their dictates were worth a heap of dung, and told me it was perfectly edible. she had a jar in the back, but only to fill more tiny one-ounce bags to sell in the giftshop. i asked nicely if we could buy more of it, but she refused and gave us a strange look, echoed by strange looks from the rest of the people in the tiny giftshop. oh well.
so for the relatively cheap price of $2 an ounce, i am now the proud owner of salt that was made last summer by some lewis and clark saltworks reenactors. apparently, they return every year to make salt at the historic saltworks. kirk and i have concocted some brilliant scenarios in which we come back later in the month to witness the reenactors at work, wearing our own historic costumes, so we can bargain directly for a larger quantity. maybe the non usda-approved salt will kill us first, and save us the trouble. we'll see.
in any case, aside from the antique mall, kirk and i were eager to escape hellish seaside as soon as possible, just as soon as we could find a bathroom. walking to the public bathrooms entailed crossing a bridge, which had a large bronze medallion proclaiming the saltwater river below to be the location of lewis and clark's saltworks. and then i was seized with an urge to buy some local salt. reading
nevers's account of a week of local eating alongside barbara kingsolver's new book on a year of local eating (animal vegetable miracle), i had the idea that i should obtain some precious local salt if at all possible, because it seems to be a hard local commodity to find.inquiries at a gift shop steered us to a local museum, where a woman pointed us to a disappointingly small packet on a lower shelf. i picked it up and then put it down: in large letters across the bottom of the attached card it read NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. i said, oh, no thanks, we're looking for edible salt. she gave me a look, and then said some very sarcastic things about the usda and whether their dictates were worth a heap of dung, and told me it was perfectly edible. she had a jar in the back, but only to fill more tiny one-ounce bags to sell in the giftshop. i asked nicely if we could buy more of it, but she refused and gave us a strange look, echoed by strange looks from the rest of the people in the tiny giftshop. oh well.
so for the relatively cheap price of $2 an ounce, i am now the proud owner of salt that was made last summer by some lewis and clark saltworks reenactors. apparently, they return every year to make salt at the historic saltworks. kirk and i have concocted some brilliant scenarios in which we come back later in the month to witness the reenactors at work, wearing our own historic costumes, so we can bargain directly for a larger quantity. maybe the non usda-approved salt will kill us first, and save us the trouble. we'll see.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2007-08-09 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-09 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-09 02:31 pm (UTC)xo.
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Date: 2007-08-09 04:34 pm (UTC)the thing is, we're going to try eating the salt. screw the usda! we'll be cautious with it, of course, but if it doesn't kill us, it's hard to pass up local salt. i guess it is really hard to find.
of course now i have moved on to a new fascination from the kingsolver book: making my own cheese! oh boy.