The Rustic Clay Jar.

Upon arrival in Denmark, I noticed a widely used tradition in places you eat. A little dish of wood accompanied the table where you sat and enjoyed your dainties. Inside this dish was uncrushed sea salt. I, when using salt, only use ground up sea salt - that's a no brainer when living on the ocean! But they in return placed the whole salt chunks in natural form in this dish to season the foods with. Then using your fingers you reached in the dish and grabbed up the salt you were to use. I liked this better because one grain of salt can impact the flavoring in a few bites at a time, and you use less. Plus it gives you the taste of the food and the salt at different intervals and amounts. So it lets you taste the food differently with each bite. I liked the idea so thoroughly, that when i was back at the marketplace on the docks, I purchased a hand made ceramic jar. This Rustic Clay Jar now sits on my eating table with the whole grain salt from the sea.

(January 2008)