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My name is Manuela Gomez Santana. The salt pan lies between Pozo del Camino and Isla
Cristina. For me, a salt pan is a mine that has yet to be fully exploited.
Our production includes flor de sal,
flakes of salt, large crystals of marine salt, liquid salt, magnesium
oil, all of it harvested and prepared by hand as they did in Roman times.
Now there are only these salt pans left but there used to be 27 salt pans in Huelva province.
This one used to belong to a German company which sold cosmetic products.
Then my father took it on when the Manager died. It was he that taught me how to manage the water flow,
where to cover the salt, how to redistribute it from one place to another, he taught me
everything.
And as I started harvesting it, we started to produce and sell flor de sal.
In Portugal they had already been selling it for 35 years and we didn't know it.
It's like when you leave a glass of warm milk to cool and layer of cream forms, that cream that lies on the surface
in the area of evaporation is what we call flor de sal,
it is the part that does not touch the water, it doesn't sink.
Flor de sal is expensive because it is very difficult to collect,
it is the climate that determines if it forms or not.
It is less salty and melts instantly in your mouth, you can chew it and even crunch it like crisps.
Looking for a new market -- it's what gets your known, differentiates your product from another
We started mixing flor de sal. Clients of ours had been asking, wouldn´t have rosmary flor de sal? "you wouldn´t have Rose?"
The herbs that we add do not have preservatives either, nothing, thing are totally natural.
Most goes to Germany, Holland and we are selling in France.
The first (to try to discourage me) were my children, my husband -- "you don´t need to do this, it`s not necessary...
Ah this women! Do you always go to bed just to think?"
I had 5 children, I managed the house, looked after the kids.
Later, they went off to study and that was when I decided to take on the salt pan company
but they still didn´t believe it. They still doubt my ability to work.
I never thought I could manage a company,
but I decided that if I could manage one salary to run the house, for me a company was the same.
And so, I started in the company and at the beginning everyone wanted to tell me how to work,
"because you have to do this", "you have to do that", "this is how it is done...".
But I said "no"! I will run the company as I have run the house.
And very happy I am. I know that I can take on more and more
and even if people don´t believe in me, I don´t care
as I believe in myself and know that I will do it.