There are salt farms on both sides of the road near Samut Songkram.
On this occasion, as we drove past, we could see a lot of activity as several fields were ripe and ready for harvesting. So, I stopped and grabbed a few shots.
Its surprisingly manual work.
Its swamp land here, and at or below sea-level. On one border of each field there is a pipe or ditch containing sea water. "Planting" season involves ensuring the field is dead flat, then pumping about 20cm of the sea water into it, using small cloth-sailed wind-mills. After a few sunny days, the water has all dried up, and left the mature "crop" of 4-5cm of nearly pure salt.
Early in the harvest day, the workers scoop the salt into small mounds, which are left standing for a few hours so that any remaining moisture will ooze out of the mound. Finally, the workers shovel salt into large wheelbarrows, and trot their loads to a central large storage mound. By the end of the harvest day, the field is ready for re-cropping, and so each field can bear about two crops per week.
On this occasion, as we drove past, we could see a lot of activity as several fields were ripe and ready for harvesting. So, I stopped and grabbed a few shots.
Its surprisingly manual work.
Its swamp land here, and at or below sea-level. On one border of each field there is a pipe or ditch containing sea water. "Planting" season involves ensuring the field is dead flat, then pumping about 20cm of the sea water into it, using small cloth-sailed wind-mills. After a few sunny days, the water has all dried up, and left the mature "crop" of 4-5cm of nearly pure salt.
Early in the harvest day, the workers scoop the salt into small mounds, which are left standing for a few hours so that any remaining moisture will ooze out of the mound. Finally, the workers shovel salt into large wheelbarrows, and trot their loads to a central large storage mound. By the end of the harvest day, the field is ready for re-cropping, and so each field can bear about two crops per week.
...surprisingly manual effort...
RSS Feed
