Harvest of the salt at the lakes of Lo Pagan, Santa Pola and Torrevieja starts in October. Then you can see the white salt mountain growing again.
First , the three villages produces salt for the road maintenance.
But also for industrial and gastronomic reasons.
So the amount of minerals changes each year . Because it depends on the temperature and the quantity of rainfall .
Also the way of producing and drying is different .
For instance in Lo Pagan and Torrevieja the water is brought into a lake . Via the channels on the coast.
It can be transferred into a larger lake.
There the water vapores during the summer. So crystals are formed.
Also nice to see: the lakes become pink. What a very nice view is for nature lovers and photographers.
The salt is then replaced at a deeper part of the lake . So it will not dry up in the sun.
The salt mineral is collected by machines.
The machines extracts the salt from the bottom.
Then the mineral is disposed in small boats .
Harvest of the salt : clean up
So now the salt is cleaned . That the moment the salt mountains grow.
Some of then are more than 20 meters .
For instance , in one year the salt lake of Torrevieja harvested 55 000 tonnes of the white mineral.
Export
Most of the harvest is for export. In the winter to Sweden, Finland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Norway.
Of course for melting the ice and snows on the roads.
Gastronomy purpose
But there is also a large amounts to gastronomic purposes.
But this salt is harvest manually. The workers have to take more care of the salt.
The quality depends on the temperature and the rainfall. So they let water in or out to gave a excellent quality.
Also they cheque if the salt has it potassium and magnesium level.
The salt of all three villages become more and more popular for the cuisine.
To end the harvest of the salt
The exploitation of the salt lakes of Lo Pagan, Torrevieja or Santa Pola guarantee the preserve at the salt lakes.
So in this part of the Costa Blanca , the flora and the fauna stays unique.