Harnessing the elements to create a perfect condiment
Cat Thomson talks to master salter, Gregorie Marshall, about bringing salt production back to the west coast of Scotland
As part of our Scotland's larder series, we talk to master salter, Gregorie Marshall, about his unique west coast, saltmaking tower.
Gregorie Marshall is the fifth generation of his family to be involved in the salt industry and we chat to him about his obsession with this humble condiment. He and his wife Whirly are the owners of a unique structure which stands proud in the Ayrshire coastal landscape, looking like something out of a fairy-tale or a set from a Tim Burton film. The couple have founded an artisan food making business, which harnesses the power of the wind to evaporate Scottish seawater and turn it into tasty salt crystals.
Having built such an impressive structure, it should come as no surprise that Gregorie had a background as an architect before he took the decision to join his family’s business. The main family firm, Peacock Salt sells anything from Rock to Himalayan and Epsom salts in industrial quantities, which are used in everything from de-icing to fish processing and the food industry. He explains that at age 35, he became the managing director of the company, he wasn’t always that keen to be involved with the family business, and he admits: ”I stuck my head, in the sand. Now, I’m absolutely glad I did, 100 per cent glad. It was the right time, the sensible time and a good time to join the company, with change happening, within the business.”
Gregorie first became aware of evaporation or graduation towers about 15 years ago, and after some research headed to Germany to visit them. His obsession with tower building began in earnest having seen them up close. As a direct result, the couple are now the proud owners of a fully functional salt-making tower as a sideline to the main business. In the 6th Century, the first graduation towers used straw to filter brine. Over the following centuries, it was discovered that blackthorn bushes performed better than straw and they became prized for their hardiness and longevity. Today the historic towers in Europe are no longer actively producing salt, instead they now run as spas, promoting the health benefits of breathing brined air. Although they haven't done any specific Covid therapeutic research Gregorie said: ”salt pretty much kills most things, so it can’t be bad.”
After researching these historic sites, Gregorie began to dream up his own Blackthorn project, “my initiative, from the start,” he said. Then the real hard work began turning the tower into a reality, making a structure capable of turning Scottish seawater into crystals in an environmentally friendly manner. Strathclyde University helped with research into the exact forces at work and how the Blackthorn twigs actually aid the evaporation process.
How it works: Seawater is slowly trickled down through the enormous thorn tower whilst the wind evaporates excess water. The saltwater is then dribbled through 54 wooden taps and a series of channels, which are adjusted daily according to the weather conditions, to produce more concentrated brine. The final stage is to take the salty brine, add some gentle heat to magically create crystals of sodium chloride with natural trace elements. Although it is the same simple process as hanging your clothes
outside to dry, Gregorie explains that: “it is a dark art, which depends on how fast the wind blows, air humidity and wind direction, with the ideal angle being 45 degrees from the prevailing wind, however, the Scottish weather is not always predictable.” He adds, “we are learning every day so I still don’t know exactly how much salt it will produce, but we will work it out. It keeps us guessing.”
The West Coast seemed an obvious location to build the tower because it was near the office and warehouse facilities coincidentally on the aptly named Saltpans Road in Ayr. However, as the seawater here is too diluted and filled with silt washed down by the Ayr river, so they have to source 28,000 litres of seawater from Troon for each batch. He said: “you are allowed to take so much seawater before you have to ask the Queen for permission, but we are nowhere near that level at the minute.” The best time for collection “depends on the level of the tide, and still weather. Naturally, seawater is around 3 per cent saline solution, 3.5 per cent is ideal” he said. The water is then transported into holding tanks, before being filtered and circulated. It is then pumped to the top of the tower at a rate of 1,000 litres per hour, moving slowly through the tower until the brine reaches around 22 per cent salinity. It is then pumped into the pan house which uses double-skinned pans for the next stage, the heating process. When the brine reaches 26 per cent strength, the crystals begin to form. The whole process he explains: “takes about 5 days, but you need to keep an eye on it.”
He said, ”I’m not quite happy yet, I’m still searching for the perfect size of the crystal and tinkering with that part of it; looking for the right size, that is easy to crush with your fingers, but delicate enough not to leave clumps but still looks nice." The finished product has a slightly golden colour which comes from the tannins of the blackthorn, originally they were aiming for pure white but to achieve that you also remove the trace elements of magnesium and calcium so Gregorie explains, "you lose the taste.”
The Taste test: “Rolling sweetness but mellow, it tickles your tastebuds, just like it trickles down the thorns.”
In the past, all around Scotland’s coastline fires were ablaze, simmering seawater to create salt which at that time was one of the highest value commodities of the day. Ayrshire has a long connection with this sadly obsolete industry with historic saltpans, a stone’s throw away from the Blackthorn Tower at Newton, Craigie and Alyson, and the old derelict Maryburgh salt houses (now Maryborough). Gregorie is delighted to have, “restored an industry, with a modern twist on an old process which was energy-intensive, making it more sustainable,” he said.
Environmental concerns are at the heart of the project, and they have created an entirely natural product. However, creating the tower itself, took a huge amount of effort, he said, “because no one had ever done it ever before.” The frame is made from renewable Scottish wood, Larch, and Douglas fir timbers, and some of the blackthorn bushes were sourced from Gledpark in Dumfries and Galloway. He said: "we eventually found craftsmen who took on the challenge."
Even the packaging has been lovingly created. Gregorie explains that the box design has no plastic at all, and finding a box that was easy to open and could be reused was a challenge, he said; “eventually we got there, but it wasn’t easy.” The stylish pack features a blackthorn flower designed by Graven images, the award winning duo Janice Kirkpatrick and husband, Ross Hunter who live close by in Ayrshire. He tells us, “we particularly like the flower design because the sharp thorn offsets the soft flower.” The couple believes the process has been worth it, to turn their crazy dream into a reality. “It has taken a long time, to get to this stage,” he said. Just when they were ready to take their highend product properly to the marketplace, lockdown happened. He said, “it has been quite tricky, we are living in strange times, which hopefully we will get through.”
The couple didn’t rest on their laurels, they created a viral social media campaign called #Passthesalt which saw gift samples of their product with a miniature of homemade sloe gin being sent to industry insiders to raise product awareness. Gregorie firmly believes lockdown has seen a renewed interest in locally sourced food, with “everyone playing their part working together and all moving in the same direction. Here in our village, the community has come together, our little shop has been really doing the job: delivering vegetables, shopping, and takeaway curry deliveries” and he hopes that continues versus “the convenience of aimlessly wandering about a supermarket.”