Sweet & Salty Tour

Today Jenna and I went on the Sweet & Salty tour. Our first stop was at a sugarcane factory where they showed us how they process the cane into sugar. I've noticed from the tours I've taken how antiquated the machinery is here. I suppose because as long as it works they don't need to upgrade! No part of the sugarcane is wasted, much like it is with no part of the pig around here but...that's another subject for another time.

Aforementioned antiquated machinery

As you can imagine, it takes a whole lotta cane to get just a little sugar. You can look at that in another way too. It took a whole lotta cane (& a little stuffed piggy) to get a picture with my little sugar. Somebody did NOT want to cooperate in the photography department today.

Mommy & Jenna in front of a BUNCH 'o sugarcane

At the salt factory I got to make my own sea salt. That was pretty cool. Actually, it was so hot I thought I was going to pass out at one point. The salt factory has a building with a pipe that runs out to the sea. The pipe pulls in the water and it runs over nets that filter out the impurities. It takes 3 weeks for the first part of the process. When the water is pumped in from the sea the salt content is 3.5%. When the water is ready to go to the next step the salt content is about 21%. I tasted it. It wasn't good. Yuck!

In the middle of the process

Boiling the water down for the salt it reminded me a lot of chemistry labs in years gone by. It also reminded me of how it is to watch the grass grow. :) From beginning to end it was about san juppun or (in English) 30 minutes.

The finished product

We were told that the Okinawans believe that the salt "takes on" the spirit and personality of the person that makes it. They let us taste the salt the factory makes and then what we made. Mine was a lot saltier. I'm not surprised. After all, I am a crusty 'ol sailor's wife. Hahahaha!