BVI
Salt Island

I had the pleasure of visiting Salt Island in 2009. It was about 30 minutes boat ride from Tortola, the main island of the British Virgin Islands. There are public ferries that travel to some of the BVI islands (e.g. Virgin Gorda and Jos Van Dyke) on a daily basis. You can only get to Salt Island via chatering a boat.

I was intrigued to see salt in its raw form just lying on the ground for anyone to pick up. At first I thought that it was foam until I examined closer. There were also some salt around some of the rocks. Real cool to see!! There is alot of history on that island. When ever you get the opportunity to visit the British Virgin Islands, be sure to visit Salt Island!

Salt Island, located between Peter and Cooper Islands in the Sir Francis Drake Channel in the BVI, is an island of rare beauty and history. At one time the island supported a thriving salt industry. It has three salt ponds. For decades the occupants of the island would harvest the is salt, which they would sell - on both the island, in local stores, and to the British Navy.

In the days before commercially packaged salt and refrigeration, people from throughout the BVI would join those living on Salt Island during dry spring when the water, in the two shallow salt water ponds located there, would evaporate leaving a hard outer layer of salt on the bottom and edges of the pond.

Many BVI dishes are created with Saltfish. Around the world, common trends in cuisine developed even before todays modern society and instant communication. Preservation techniques like drying, smoking and curing allowed people to store food without refrigeration, especially in warm climates like the Caribbean. Here in the BVI, and through the Caribbean, the preferred method is salting or corning, fresh fish from the sea for use later.

Noted as one of the oldest methods of preserving food, it is still practiced today. Though often called salt cod around the world, locally its made from whitefish such as grouper. In the BVI historically the salt came from Salt Island where for generations salt was harvested for the local market as well as passing ships.

The salting process involves first beheading, scaling and eviscerating the fish and some people prefer to debone as well. Salt is packed in the crevasses and then the fish is left to brine for about a day in the liquid the salt brings out. After all the moisture is drawn out of the fish it is preserved and can be stored until ready to use, theoretically lasting years.