It may once have been a luxury item that only connoisseurs singled out and used, but in recent years, its nutritional value is beginning to be recognized again. The reason for the natural sea salt of Kythira.

Harvesting it, however, is a difficult job that requires endurance and patience. Keeping the tradition from his father Panagiotis, o George Sklavos, a salt collector, speaking to APE-MPE explains: “For many years, my father collected natural sea salt with his hands and sold it in Kythira. Thus, keeping this tradition, I also wanted to become a worthy successor. It is a very difficult business, relatively dangerous, just like walking on rocks. The old people used to say that if you want to curse someone, tell them to be a salt worker or a chimney sweep, to work non-stop in the heat.”

The approximately 30 areas of Kythira with the natural troughs are auctioned every year. In other words, they are rented by those interested in harvesting salt, from the Home Property of Kythera and Antikythera, an institution that has existed since the Anglo-occupation. So also for Mr. Sklavos, as he explains to APE-MPE, the process is the same, as every summer one of the salt pans of the island, specifically of Avlaimon, is auctioned. From this salt flat, as he explains, he works for a second salary, since his main occupation is fishing.

Regarding the process of harvesting the salt and the difficult conditions, Giorgos Sklavos with his 20 years of experience, explains in detail: “I pump the seawater and start watering like an orchard, every twenty days, my autogenous salt pans – the countless natural cavities between rocks. It will take heat and breeze until the water finally evaporates and what remains, a month later, is the salt. Each picking lasts up to ten days. With a slotted spoon, I collect it myself every day from half past five in the morning, that is, before the sun becomes unbearable. I repeat the same scene, the so-called “seferi” – alternating watering and harvesting – throughout the summer, until the end of September. The weather, however, can halve my production: with storms the waves rise and the sea washes away the water I have poured into the salt pan together with the salt that has already collected there. So does the rain that falls and melts it.

Weather permitting, however, I will produce basket by basket as much as a ton of salt annually. I load it into sacks and from there onto my shoulder for the car. At home now, I dry it for thirty days, until it is thoroughly dry, then I clean it, before bagging it. With this process, you understand that the flower of the salt is collected, it has not undergone any treatment, so it contains trace elements such as fluorine, magnesium, potassium, calcium. It is also tastier and more “salty” than commercial salt,” says the producer.

After the salt is harvested, it is time to put it on the market and according to Giorgos Sklavos and his partner Anastasia Kalopaidis, who is in charge of selling the salt, “the most important thing is to keep the quality high”.

As Mrs. Kalopaidis, who deals with the distribution of their own production, reports to APE-MBE, through their social media page, “our clientele is many years old. We know they don’t change us because they know the quality. There are people waiting for us several months in advance, until our new production comes out.”

Harvesting it is tiring and painstaking work, however the benefits of its consumption and above all the deliciousness of Kythera sea salt, are what make it stand out, as one of its producers emphasizes.