Salt

[Arzosah]

I did a little bit of research on salt, after seeing Ruth Goodman doing the evaporation thing in the Tudor farming programmes - turns out they were being a little bit economical with the truth there. Salt mines are good - Cheshire, as opposed to Siberia but when people used to evaporate salt from seawater, they usually chose a big estuary - the seawater is usually more salty there, so you've got a good start. Then its solar evaporation, or using fuel, which would be tremendously time intensive.

Thing is, if tshtf in a big way, there'd be very little new salt available until trading got re-established - its fairly labour intensive to produce the old fashioned way, and if a group of people was doing that, they wouldn't be able to grow their own stuff, so in effect they'd be risking their lives to provide for other groups, depending on those other groups to feed them. I doubt things would go down as far as that, but they **might** - at the moment, I've only got about 12kg in, I'm having a few storage problems at the moment.

[jansman]

12 kg is a lot of salt Arzosah. Well done. Interesting facts you posted there. Thanks.

[grenfell]

I seem to recall that roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt such was it's value. It has made me think I really should have more in store , it would make an excellent barter commodity.

[Arzosah]

12 kg is a lot of salt Arzosah. Well done. Interesting facts you posted there. Thanks.

You're welcome and thank you there's a few others on page 1 of this thread who're also stockpiling, around the same as me, a little less, a little more. You can buy in quantity on the interweb, of course, but a Sainsbo will give you a similar price per kilo *if* you buy the Basics range, I think its 25p for 750g. And untraceable if paid for by cash

PS - yep, just checked, in a hard plastic bottle its 30p for 750g, in an ordinary plastic bag its 55p for 1.5k (37p per kilo). Worth getting, if you can make the space.

[Malthouse]

... it would make an excellent barter commodity.

Exactly why I would take the time to produce it.

[featherstick]

I seem to recall that roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt such was it's value. It has made me think I really should have more in store , it would make an excellent barter commodity.

Hence the word "salary".

You would need approx 1 cubic metre of gas to evaporate 1kg of seawater, which would leave you with 35 gms of salt. That's a huge amount of energy, available to us at the turn of a knob on our stoves currently, but extremely difficult to supply pre-industrial age. After some sort of ASE, salt-making would become important again, but a difficult, energy- and time-intensive undertaking.

[Malthouse]

This guy seems to have it sussed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sCbBFod6EA

[jansman]

12 kg is a lot of salt Arzosah. Well done. Interesting facts you posted there. Thanks.

You're welcome and thank you there's a few others on page 1 of this thread who're also stockpiling, around the same as me, a little less, a little more. You can buy in quantity on the interweb, of course, but a Sainsbo will give you a similar price per kilo *if* you buy the Basics range, I think its 25p for 750g. And untraceable if paid for by cash

PS - yep, just checked, in a hard plastic bottle its 30p for 750g, in an ordinary plastic bag its 55p for 1.5k (37p per kilo). Worth getting, if you can make the space.

I buy it in bulk from work... But. I priced it up last time, and the very same supermarket packs you speak of are just the same price. So in future I think I shall buy as you do, as the packs are easier to handle. If ever there came a need to trade, small, sealed packs would be easier to pass on.

[Hamradioop]

could you not use a cold frame to make a solar still to evaporate the water. I Live to far in land to experiment with sea water.

[grenfell]

You would need approx 1 cubic metre of gas to evaporate 1kg of seawater, which would leave you with 35 gms of salt. That's a huge amount of energy, available to us at the turn of a knob on our stoves currently, but extremely difficult to supply pre-industrial age. After some sort of ASE, salt-making would become important again, but a difficult, energy- and time-intensive undertaking.

going by your figures Arzosah 's salt stock has or would have taken a little over 342 cubic metres of gas to produce. Living inland it would be awkward for me to reduce seawater at any other point than at source. Solar still does sound a good idea if one is staying close to the sea for a few months.
There must be some mileage in using osmosis to produce salt at a lower energy cost even if only to concentrate the saltwater before evaporation?