Salineros harvesting the salt. archive photo. | Flor de Sal d'Estrenc

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Flor de Sal d'Es Trenc has been included in the Catalogue of Traditional Foods of the Balearic Islands.

The move was approved by the Commission of Traditional Foods of the Balearic Islands at a meeting with the General Director of Agriculture, Livestock & Rural Development, Gabriel Torrens, other heads of the department, a representative from the University of the Balearic Islands and representatives from all of the Island Councils.

Mallorca now has a total of 14 foods in the Catalogue, including the Mallorcan ensaimada; Mallorcan black pork "porcella"; Wine from Binissalem, Pla & Llevant, Mallorca and Sierra de Tramuntana-Norte and the liqueur, Palo de Mallorca.

There are 26 Balearic products in the Catalogue, including Flor de Sal d'Estrenc and the details will be published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands, or BOIB.

The catalogue was created in 2004 with the aim of preserving Balearic food heritage. It includes typical and traditional foods from the Islands, with a minimum of 30 years of production, processing or marketing accredited, regardless of whether they are protected or not.

Flor de Sal d’Es Trenc is the purest, top of the range salt and it's usually harvested in the hot summer months by Salineros, who skim the crystals off the top of the ponds with rakes, then put it into special woven baskets, to let the excess water to run off.

Drying tables.

From there the salt is taken to the drying area where the crystals are spread out on large tables and sifted and checked by hand, to let the air run through the salt and make sure there are no little stones or pond insects nestling amongst the grains.

The drying process can sometimes take a whole day, depending on the strength of the wind, the level of humidity and the heat of the sun.

The salt is packed in sacks, labeled, then blended with different flavours and shipped to more than 30 countries worldwide.

Blended Flor de Sal d'Es Trenc.

There are several flavoured versions of Flor de Sal d'Es Trenc, such as, Orange & Chilli, Beetroot, Olive, Hibiscus, Sri Lanka, Mediterranea, Rosa and Shiitake and two with traditional Majorcan ingredients, Hinojo Marino and ramallet tomato.

Most of us don’t think twice about salt, but sodium is vital to our well being and Flor de Sal prides itself on keeping salt production completely natural using only traditional methods.

Flor de Sal production increased from 45,000 kilos in 2014 to 76,000 kilos in 2019 when turnover reached 1,846,800 euros.

But the best year by far was 2017 when there was a bumper harvest of 93,000 kilos.