Fish30114-
The salt isn't a flake finishing salt and would be considered more of a coarse salt. Actually, it contains the fleur de sel and coarser crystals. I don't have an interest at this point to separate the fleur de sel because I like the salt as it is when the crystals form. The minerality of the water and time allowed for the crystals to form are the biggest factors.
This salt tends to absorb some moisture and because of that, I wouldn't use it in a grinder. Just pinch it with the fingers, that works best for me. If you're in a drier climate than where I am here, you may be able to do that. Just dry it in an oven set low to about 170 until dry and you should be good to go. Same for humid climates, but instead of storing in a grinder, place the still warm, dry salt in an airtight container and allow to cool. That should keep it extra dry.
Salt making has been around forever and is a product of evaporation. The salt is dissolved and in solution within the sea water. As the sea water evaporates and the concentration increases, the salt will eventually begin to fall out of solution and form crystals and that is when sea salt is born.
For those that are asking how to do it, that's the whole process there.
The biggest thing is to make sure that your source water is good to begin with. I collect my water from waters that are monitored by SC DHEC. Collect on a fresh incoming high tide charge as well. If the waters are safe and clean but have kicked of sediment, sand or silt, allow that to settle out first before continuing. Then filter the water to make sure you catch anything else. Sometimes I scoop up a baby jellyfish and that gets caught by the filtering. They're damn near impossible to see as well. And I doubt they'd affect the quality overall but still, extra filtering doesn't hurt.
I know some operations even filter the water to bottled water standards before beginning the evaporation process.
