I have a jar of 'Instant Ocean Concentrate.'

The instructions read: "Just add water. (Lots and lots of water)"  

The ingredients read: Sea salt

Okay, I'll quit trying to be humorous. But I do have a jar of sea salt that I made myself from water that the boys (the best of all possible grandsons) and I collected years ago from the far north end of Muriwai Beach, New Zealand.   

I made several batches of it back when they were younger.  I sent some home as gifts and we used most of it for cooking and meals.  I even used it to cure a batch of salt-dried black olives. 

This is a glass cake pan of salt in process. I wish I had taken this picture from farther away.     

Ocean water is approximately 3.5% salt.  I would start the evaporation process by heating pans of water on the stove. I used our BBQ grill once too with good results. I learned that I could reduce the quantity of water in any given pan by 75%, and then it would be time to transfer the salt solution to a glass pan for evaporation under the sun.  

Consider this. If I halved the quantity of water in the pan, I would double the salt content to 7%. If I halved that quantity, I'd have 14% salt. I found that after that concentration was reached, I'd start to get salt precipitating out of solution onto the metal sides of the pan. This was hard to get off.  Therefore, I'd transfer the solution to our glass cake pan and evaporate the rest of the water in that way.  It didn't stick to the glass.    

These are ripe olives that I picked myself from trees in the neighborhood and packed in my own sea salt. They slowly lost moisture over time and cured and wrinkled as you see.  

I have brought this topic up because I have recently run across a business, north of us, that I greatly admire. When I tell you about them, I think you'll understand why.  

It's name is The Taipa Salt Pig. I'm not going to take pictures off their website to show you, but will provide their address. I urge you to investigate this very unique business.   

They are doing something that I would love to do.  They collect water from a beach near their home, and evaporate it, producing natural sea salt.  They also make several flavored sea salts.  

The picture below shows an avocado I am about to enjoy for lunch, sprinkled with their squid-ink salt. (It's black, but not pepper) The ink comes from Spain, I think. Years ago, I tried a can of mussels in squid ink, and liked them. This salt has an indescribable, yet mild taste, but not fishy, if that is something that worries you.  

You also see displayed the other salts I recently purchased from them. In the red-capped bottle is Togarashi Salt, which has nori flakes, chili pepper, sesame and citrus zest added to the salt. (Nori is a species of seaweed that is often used to wrap sushi.) I especially like this salt on my Sunday morning fried eggs. The other black-capped bottle of white salt is their pure sea salt.  

https://www.thetaipasaltpig.com/

I plan to try more of their flavored salts. Chili, smoked, garlic, and rosemary are among the flavors they sell.  And next year, they intend to offer 'Around the World in Forty Salts.'

You produce a unique and imaginative, product, Taipa Salt Pig. Good luck to you. You deserve it.  

-djf