Eastern Home and Travel West Virginia—Home to The Salt of the Earth | Page 3

TASTINGS
WEST VIRGINIA—HOME
TO THE SALT OF THE EARTH
B Y S H U A N B U TC H E R
In 1817, Nancy Bruns’ ancestors started drilling for brine in the Kanawha River Valley in what was then Virginia (now West
Virginia). Seven generations later, she and her brother, Lewis Payne, have picked up where the salt-making family left off.
At J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works, located in Malden, W.Va., salt is once again being produced on the same land where the
Dickinson family garnered it 200 years ago. In the past, the end use of the salt was primarily industrial; today it is an
agricultural product. The high-quality artisanal salt seasons and finishes everything from grilled steak to salmon to popcorn.
This is not your ordinary table salt. Harvested naturally by hand, the product hails from an ancient sea under the Appalachian
Mountains. Rich in minerals with no additional preservatives or artificial additives, their salt truly reminds you of the purity
of the Earth. Some bestsellers are cooking salts, such as heirloom, smoked or ramp, but the salt grinders and popcorn salt
are great, too.
To produce the salt, brine comes out of the ground, where it is poured into beds that are essentially located inside
greenhouses. The sun then takes over the process, evaporating the water until the only thing left is a crystal-white salt.
EASTERN HOME & TRAVEL
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