{"product_id":"sel-terre-grise","title":"Coarse Salt from Île de Ré","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe salt marshes of the Île de Ré, the Atlantic island off Charente-Maritime, were first developed\u0026nbsp;between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the monks of Saint-Michel-en-l’Herm. By the\u0026nbsp;nineteenth century the marshes covered nearly a fifth of the island’s surface, and a thousand sauniers\u0026nbsp;worked them. The decline of artisanal production in the twentieth century, under pressure from\u0026nbsp;industrial salt and rail, was met with an organising response: a Syndicat de vente in 1901; a Comité\u0026nbsp;de défense salicole in 1911; an Association de vente en commun in 1933; and in 1942 the formal founding\u0026nbsp;of the Coopérative des Sauniers de l’Île de Ré, the cooperative that today unites most of the island’s\u0026nbsp;producers across more than four hundred hectares of marsh. In 2023 the island’s salt and Fleur de\u0026nbsp;Sel received IGP status from the European Union. The method has not changed in a thousand years:\u0026nbsp;coarse salt forms at the bottom of the natural clay basins; it is harvested manually with a simoussi,\u0026nbsp;piled into pyramids on the edge of the pond, left to dry, transported for September packaging. No\u0026nbsp;chemical weedkillers, no washing, no leaching, no post-harvest additives, no liners on the basin\u0026nbsp;floors. The grey tint comes from the natural clay and trace minerals absorbed during crystallisation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"zales-and-rego","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57142540665215,"sku":"EP-2205","price":17.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0920\/9439\/8847\/files\/sal-grues.png?v=1777969934","url":"https:\/\/www.zalesrego.com\/en\/products\/sel-terre-grise","provider":"Zales \u0026 Rego","version":"1.0","type":"link"}