The pans lie behind the dunes at Velddrif, on the flat ground where the Berg River gives up and runs into the sea. Sea water comes in through a channel in September and moves slowly through four shallow pans while the summer takes the fresh water back out of it. By March what is left is a crust you can walk on. We rake it by hand, wash it in its own brine and let the wind dry it on racks under the shed. Nothing is added, nothing is bleached and nothing goes near a kiln. The only reason any of this works is that the wind here blows for nine months of the year without being asked.
Velddrif, West Coast. Pallet quantities railed from Piketberg, or collected off the yard.
