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Brilliant July sunshine casts a magical sparkle on millions of fresh sea water droplets as they trickle down through the only salt-producing thorn graduation tower in the world. Facing the sea from the Ayr coastline across to Arran, this mighty and mysterious-looking wooden structure has a wonderful story to tell – and not only because it is returning salt-making to an area once renowned for it.
Blackthorn Salt’s graduation tower is the first thing that hits you are you travel down the delightfully-named Saltpans Road that runs along the industrial coastline at Ayr. I’d been desperate to visit for ages, but lockdown had prevented it. When I finally go to make the journey this week, the wait was certainly worth it.
Finished only in March last year, the tower is modelled on the huge old blackthorn towers that still exist in Germany, Austria and Poland – although they are used as spas or outdoor ‘inhalatoriums’ to improve respiratory conditions. In Ayr, the Blackthorn graduation tower was designed and built locally, specifically to produce a modern, eco-friendly, sustainable and tasty gourmet salt.
“We visited the Polish and German towers several times on research trips, but the people who knew most about them couldn’t come to help us here as they are no longer producing salt,” said Blackthorn Salt founder Gregorie Marshall (pictured left with wife and business partner Whirly), a former Glasgow architect whose great-great grandfather 140 years ago founded Peacock Salt, the largest distributor of salt products in the UK, on the site at the delightfully-named Saltpans Road. Gregorie is now MD of the company, and his is the only salt being produced by Peacock. It is his brainchild, and he runs it with Whirly and Malky McKinnon, right, who has been with Peacock since leaving school at 16 and is now a fully-trained master salter with Blackthorn Salt.
The aesthetic appeal of the eight-metre-high, 23-foot-long tower is huge. I loved the visual contrast between the clean, straight lines of the horizontal larch beams and the vertical Douglas fir posts, the spherical wooden taps and the stiff, jagged, thorny branches of blackthorn (a tree native to Scotland and which grows sloe berries). Most of the bunches that are rammed together like thatch in their tens of thousands into the spaces of the 45-degree-angled triangular structure are imported from Poland, but one section has been was given by the Gledpark venison farm in Kirkcudbrightshire after Marshall put out an appeal for donations. He hopes that in future – when the bundles need replaced in about seven years’ time – all the twigs will be Scottish and has ambitions to plant his own blackthorn field.
And gently cascading down through this dark Sleeping Beauty-esque hedge is the all-important sea water, taken from Troon and pumped up into wooden channels that run across the top of the tower. It goes up at around 3% salination and by the time it has trickled down to the tray below - about one minute - it can have increased by between 0.4% and 4%, depending on weather conditions. It is circulated until it has increased to around 22% salination when it’s ready for transfer to the panhouse. After around four days of slow-heating and stirring by hand, it reaches 26% salination and crystallises to yield around 250 kilos.
The countless blackthorn thorns and twigs increase the surface area over which the sea water evaporates, while filtering out calcium sulphate, so the salt retains about 93%-96% sodium chloride (similar to French sel de gris) plus magnesium, calcium, potassium, sulphates, copper and other trace elements. This, plus the £6.40 price tag for a 240g box, elevates it to ‘gourmet salt’ status: for perspective, the best-known table and sea salt brands contain up to 99.9% and are much cheaper due to industrialised production methods and higher sodium levels.
Without the need for a pinch of salt, I’m willing to bet that true foodies, professional and amateur, will be willing to pay for the unique provenance, relatively small-batch availability, the slight sepia tinge lent by the blackthorn bark, and the time and labour involved in making this, the only salt made this way.
The flakes are exceptionally large and fragile, breaking down easily in the box. I ask Whirly to describe the flavour. “I think Blackthorn Salt tastes, as you’d expect, of the sea, but in a good way, without any of the sudden, shocking brininess that a mouthful of seawater brings,” she says. “It is tangy and confident followed by a more rolling sweetness.”
It’s generally accepted that when sprinkled on top of a dish, good salt helps draw out flavour. Would she agree? “Blackthorn really shines as a finishing salt, squished easily and finely between thumb and forefinger for a gentle, smooth and even spread, or the flakes just lightly sprinkled as they come, to give that attention-seeking spark to combat richer foods,” she says, adding that flakes atop grilled pineapple or fresh watermelon taste fantastic and when added sparingly to coffee help take away any bitterness.
The couple’s softly, softly approach to marketing relies, for now, on word of mouth within the hospitality industry. Forced by lockdown to put off a high-profile Spring launch of their very first batch, they decided instead on a “Pass the Salt” campaign where “for fun and for free” they sent out 19 boxes (a reference to Covid-19) to people who were meant to come and visit pre-launch or expressed a particular interest in what they had been doing. They asked them to pass on the names of others if they liked it, who in turn would pass on other names.
Some of this batch was also sent out, in larger tubs, to kitchens providing support meals for key workers. The cost of the salt was donated to the South Ayrshire Food Bank, Hospitality Health and the National Emergencies Trust.
Now the second batch is being weighed and packed. I hope it enjoys the fairytale reception it truly deserves.
