This "Dinosaur Egg" is One Of The Rarest Salts In The World | Still Standing | Insider Business

this salt is known as the dinosaur egg and it's one of the rarest in the world only a few families on a small island in the Philippines still make it it takes eight hours of non-stop cooking to transform seawater brine into this artisanal salt called a synthip walk foreign for food and other Goods but the craft nearly disappeared in the late 20th century when younger people started favoring jobs that paid cash and his siblings decided to revive it 13 years ago but it hasn't been easy a law bans them from selling the traditional salt in their own country so how do you find a new market for an old craft we traveled to the Philippines to find out how this rare industry is still standing foreign tusks are what give the salt its distinct taste Nesta keeps thousands of them soaking in a saltwater pond near his Workshop that is it can take two days to chop the 3 000 coconut husks needed to make one batch of salt has been working here for about a year Nestor and his wife adopted him when he was four years old after his mother died and his father became ill the husks dry in the Sun for a day next Nestor sets them on fire starting from the bottom he learned salt making from his father and grandfather when he was 15 years old but like many other young people he left three years later to look for Less laborious careers today his team of four does most of the work the husk's burn continuously for a whole week foreign workers break up any large pieces by hand this is one of the most essential ingredients workers cover the Rattan filter called saksak with a bed of fresh Palm leaves to keep it from leaking they pack the ashes in and spend an hour compressing them with a wooden stick then about 1300 gallons of seawater get pumped through the filter what comes out on the other side is a salty brine called the sick this step alone can take a day and a half Nesta patches the stove with a mixture of ashes and water before each use the frequent high heat often damages it is then he balances clay pots called gone between metal rods it can take a whole hour to get it right but Nestor says that's quick foreign [Music] rock out of place could ruin months of work important family left the trade in 1983 after their workshop was destroyed in a typhoon in 2010 his brother Chris convinced him to restart their business to save the tradition since then other family members have also joined the trade like his cousin Josephine sumingip one of the few Potters in town who makes the clay pods she learned how when she was 18 years old foreign foreign back at the workshop the team prepares the foil with mahogany wood and coconut prawns Nesta has strict rules in place before any cooking begins everyone needs to remove jewelry or watches and refrain from eating oily Foods bees are based on superstitions passed down for Generations finally it's time to start cooking and it's all hands on deck JoJo tends to the fire while two others pour brine into the pots they continue to fill them as the water evaporates the process can take all day ending when each pot is filled with salt crystals these ladles are made from seashells since they are heat resistant and don't contain synthetic chemicals temperatures in the workshop can reach up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit foreign has been making salt here since the workshop opened today he handles most of the cooking um foreign s are finally full but the salt won't be ready until they crack at the bottom they sit to call overnight workers take each pot out of the stove the next morning here is workers quite open the bottom of the pot to reveal the salt coconut husks are the perfect cleaning tool to remove any dust most of the people who work with Nesta today had never made salt before but now say they love the work that was one batch makes 110 eggs they can make up to four batches a month if the weather is good one part of a single walk can last a whole year Lester's sister Veronica manunga salupan is in charge of managing and marketing the workshop s is foreign but selling it has been their biggest hurdle a national law passed in 1995 requires all salts sold in the Philippines to be iodized as in law the Asin law was meant to combat malnutrition and prevent goiters which were often caused by iodine deficiency but the Lord devastated small-scale salt producers who couldn't afford the expensive Machinery required to add iodine to their salt [Music] national production dropped from 85 to 7 in 31 years nowadays most of the salt in the Philippines is imported from Australia China and Mexico lawmakers proposed a bill in 2017 that would exempt lateral sea salt producers from the acin law but it's still pending approval so artisanal salt producers have felt the impacts of similar laws across the world since the 1990s nangapura is one of the last Farmers making far long salt in the seaside village of kusamba in Bali Indonesia she spends her days carrying baskets full of seawater and pouring them on the volcanic sand to filter out the salt for years an iodine law similar to the one in the Philippines made it hard for Farmers like her to sell salt in stores without regular buyers or frequent tourists nanga is often left with unsold stock warmers make so little that most have left the business for better paying jobs at nearby hotels and tourist spots and even though nunga has loved this work since she was 15 she doesn't want her children following the same path guys nowadays she sells her salt to a Cooperative that adds their iodine kusamba salt Farmers received a geographical indication certificate from the Indonesian government in early 2022 it recognizes that a product comes from a particular place and has a unique reputation because of it but Indonesia Imports around 2 million tons of cheap assault every year and the farmers face stiff competition Farmers sell one kilogram of balung sold for about two dollars that's more than three times the price of mass-produced salt sold in most grocery stores making it a luxury for the majority of people nangar's main customers are tourists who come here to see the traditional methods and often leave with sold like nanga Nesta also depends on a foreign customer base tourists are his main buyers he also sells some of it online to other countries foreign s are also required to use iodized salt but some have been taking a chance and adding a Cindy walk to their menu Chef Georgina Navarra has been buying it from Nesta since 2018. his award-winning restaurant in the country's capital Manila serves contemporary Filipino cuisine we prioritize using local ingredients and serving up our own versions of Filipino dishes [Music] ache flan ice cream the restaurant's pastry chef Bettina tenero showed us how to make it firstly we start with melting sugar we use raw turbinado sugar from that gross in a pan until it reaches a hard crack stage they pour a mixture of egg yolk sugar and milk on top and steam it for one hour it's chilled and then churned into ice cream I don't think the ice cream could be complete without the cinti book I just think they're the perfect pair I've had the chance to visit um the ascentiboch maker in Bohol together with Chef Jordi and you get a better appreciation of what these people are doing which is not just basically making salt but preserving Heritage preserving culture Nesta and Veronica say it's been difficult finding the next generation of our sintebo walk produces even their children are hesitant to take over the business one day um weather here has become more unpredictable in recent years Nesta and Veronica have to watch out for heavy rains and typhoons which have been hitting the island even during the dry season in 2021 super typhoon Odette ravaged the Philippines with Bohol being one of the hardest hit areas the storm destroyed their workshop and they couldn't complete orders for months they spent three months rebuilding it and in March 2022 they finally reopened despite the challenges Nesta and Veronica are confident in the team they have now blessing other salt makers in Bohol have also started up again Nestor and Veronica know how difficult the work is but they believe the legacy of a Cindy walk is worth it and they're proud to be carrying on the tradition in their ancestors honor um congratulations [Music] [Music]

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Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023