T he Creators of N.C. By Wiley Cash

Salt of the Earth

Buil ding a business t ogeth er

By Wil e y Ca Sh • p ho to gr a phS By m a l l ory Ca Sh The interior of the building is warm and smells like the ocean. The walls and ceiling are constructed of white corrugated plastic sheets, all of them glowing beneath the bright noonday sun. Nets hang from the ceiling above tables that hold large wooden trays, their bottoms lined with thick, restaurant-grade plastic.

Jason Zombron look s dow n into one of the trays of white cr ysta ls that seem to have ar ranged themselves in hapha zard pat ter ns. If you stare long enough, it appears that the ocean is in each tray, dozens of tides f rozen in time, doing their best to ret ur n to their prev ious for m. A f ter a ll, just a few days ago, this sa lt was floating somewhere in the Atlantic, but now it has made its way here to a piece of land in Burgaw, Nor th Carolina, where Jason and his w ife, Jeanet te Philips, ow n and operate Sea L ove Sea Sa lt.

Jason pick s up a sma ll shovel and scoops up a load of cr ysta ls, which have hardened into countless geometr ic shapes, f rom squares to py ramids. Jeanet te stands nearby. “I never get tired of this,” she says, her voice quiet as if she’s whisper ing a prayer. “Ever y time I w itness it happen, it takes my breath away. It sits here w ith the sun and the heat until it’s ready to be har vested. We’re not doing any thing to make this happen.”

W hile heat and evaporation are the fina l steps in creating sa lt, Jeanet te and Jason act ua lly do a lot to make it happen before it gets to that point. T he vent ure beg ins in Wr ightsv ille Beach, where, in a process and at a location that Jason and Jeanet te are w isely hesitant to disclose, water is extracted f rom the ocean and pumped into a 275 -ga llon tank on the back of a trailer. From there, the water is transpor ted to r ura l Burgaw and the 3 -acre far m that Jason and Jeanet te ow n. T he water is then pumped f rom the trailer to a second tank, where g rav it y takes over and the rea l work beg ins. Jason and Jeanet te fill tray af ter tray w ith water, k ink ing the hose to stop the flow while ar rang ing the f ull trays on tables throughout the sa lt house. T he trays w ill sit in the heat however long it takes for the water to evaporate, leav ing nothing but the sa lt behind.

T he labor can be ta xing, and that’s before the har vesting and the blending of sa lt w ith other ing redients even beg ins, but Jeanet te and Jason delight in the work. A f ter a ll, the chance to spend as much time together as possible is what led them to step into the business of mak ing sa lt.

“W hatever business we set out on, it had to get us together,” Jason says. “T hat was the most impor tant thing.”

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“It fe els g re at b e c ause we’re pa ssionate ab out t h is,” Je a net te adds. “A nd it’s t he first t ime we’ve got ten to do somet h ing cre at ive toget her.”

T he t wo met on a blind date in A shev ille. At the time, Jeanet te was work ing in public hea lth, and Jason was in sa les for an outdoor prov isions company. T hey both traveled a lot, and they wanted to spend more time together. Jeanet te’s sister lived in Seat tle, and so the young couple set their wagons west. T hey made a life in the Nor thwest, forg ing successf ul careers and raising t wo young children, and they soon rea lized that they were both interested in food, the g row ing of it, the prepar ing of it, and, of course, the eating of it. T hey a lso began exper imenting w ith var ious ways of using dif ferent k inds of sa lts in their cook ing.

W hile they loved liv ing in the Nor thwest, they began to feel hemmed in by their careers and schedules and missed the sense of communit y they’d felt in the South. Jeanet te was bor n and raised in Decat ur, Georg ia, and Jason just outside of Washing ton, D.C.

“We wanted to live close to the water,” Jason says. W hen they moved to Wilming ton a couple of years ago, they began to look for a shared business oppor t unit y they could devote themselves to. T hey lear ned that A manda Jacobs, the founder of Sea L ove Sea Sa lt, was look ing to sell her g row ing business. W hen they met w ith A manda, Jeanet te brought a long a sa lt recipe she had developed back in Seat tle. W hile there were other suitors who wanted to purchase the business, “No one else brought A manda a sa lt,” Jeanet te says.

Since purchasing the company, Jeanet te and Jason have worked to develop new sa lts to add to a lineup that a lready includes citr us, Sr iracha, rosemar y, dill pick le and others. Two flavors they brought w ith them f rom their exper iences in Seat tle are herb and fennel, and they reg ularly test var ious sa lts at loca l far mers markets in Wilming ton, track ing the responses of their customers. T hey a lso have a thr iv ing connection w ith numerous loca l restaurants and brewer ies, most of whom pr ide themselves on sourcing loca l products, as do Jason and Jeanet te. A lmost a ll their sa lts are flavored w ith Nor th Carolina-g row n produce.

A side f rom developing new sa lts, Jeanet te and Jason are planning to develop the land where the business sits. W hile it contains the sa lt house and a warehouse, they are building a hoop house to double their capacit y — impor tant dur ing the w inter, when the time it takes for water to evaporate goes f rom 10 days in the summer to as long as three week s in the colder months, when days are shor ter. T hey are planning to host far m-to -table mea ls feat ur ing loca l chefs and ar tists, and are think ing of other creative ways to inv ite the communit y to this wooded, quiet piece of land.

Jason pours scoops of sa lt into fine mesh bags that he hangs f rom the ceiling, sa lt that could have beg un on the other side of the world, now suspended f rom the raf ters in r ura l Nor th Carolina.

“People come here for the ocean,” he says. “T his is g iv ing them the chance to taste it.” PS

Wil e y Ca sh is th e Alumni Auth or-in -Re si d en ce at th e Universit y of Nor th Carolin a -A sh ev ill e. His n ew n o vel, W hen Ghost s C ome Home, is avail abl e wh erever bo ok s are sol d.