THE SALT BOOK: Indonesia - Savu Island

For hundreds of years for the inhabitants of Savu island, a 16 hours ferry journey away from Timor, salt production has been one of the main industries.

Located on the south side of the island hundreds of families make salt, the method of which hasn't changed. Using the leaf of the sugar palm tree small 'boats' are made. Brine from the sea is poured in to the 'boats' and the water left to evapourate. After a day or so the salt residue is scraped away and the process is repeated. Hundreds of thousands of these tiny leaf containers dot the coastline.

Modernity is slowly creeping in to this remote part of Indonesia. Around 5 years ago industrious locals began using plastic buckets to carry the salt water from the sea and they started experimenting with plastic and cement salt water holders. Yet still this is a minority, the vast majority still produce salt the same way they have done for centuries.