Island Living… Keiki Style: Honu’apo Sea Salt Beds

On the Ka’u coast is Honu’apo.  Hiking out over the lava fields you come across some amazing things!  There are shallow and deep ocean ponds to swim in, crazy lava rock formations and sea salt beds dotting the coastline.  For thousands of years before contact with the West, Native Hawaiians made their own salt by collecting and gathering salt that was the result of the natural evaporation of seawater from shoreline pools.  This is pure solar-evaporated salt.  It is used as common salt in Hawaii as well as in traditional Hawaiian dishes such as Kalua Pig, Hawaiian Jerky and Poke.  Mixing the white sea salt with alaea clay, a native Hawaiian volcanic clay that is rich in iron, creates Hawaiian red salt.  There are also Hawaiian black salts which are often called “volcanic salts”.  These are made by combining the white salt with activated charcoal for color and detoxifying effects.

The kids loved harvesting the sea salt and getting to see where and how it was formed!