OF WATERS THE WEST
Farming the Waters An Oregon entrepreneur draws inspiration—and more—from the coast by BEN JACOBSEN, FOUNDER, JACOBSEN SALT Photograph by MAT T BEAN
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n August of 2011, while living in Portland, Oregon, I left a tech media company I co-founded to pursue making salt—a completely different way to make a living. Long gone were the days of troubleshooting a user experience, analyzing CSS, and attempting to build a business that depended on coding. I hadn't been drawing a salary for two and a half years and was living off my savings when I decided it was time to take the leap. Throughout those trying years, I had been experimenting with making salt from the Pacific, an essential mineral I became fascinated with living in Scandinavia. I yearned to dive into something that moved me: emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I found that on the Oregon coast, where I was met with its nature; both beautiful and unforgiving. It's one of the most awe-inspiring coastlines in America. From rugged, rocky shores, to long sandy beaches, tidal pools, bays, and waterfalls flowing directly into the seawater, it moves you. At least it moved me, and still does. The Oregon coast was a new beginning for me, a chance for
renewal. I ditched trying to be something I wasn't, and threw myself into a thousand-year-old process of crafting salt from seawater. I didn't just want to make any salt, I wanted to make the best salt in the world. Why try to make something just average from a coastline this beautiful? The salt I wanted to make was dependent on three primary variables; taste, texture, and color, all of which were influenced by both technique and the source. I wanted salt that tasted incredibly bright and briny, with no associated bitterness. I wanted the salt to be very light and flaky, like snowflakes, with a textural contrast to food, and striking on food visually. I wanted to create a salt that was as transformative to food as much as Oregon's coast was transformative for me. From Neah Bay in Washington down to Gold Beach, Oregon, I collected seawater from 27 different spots. I took several trips up and down the coast, steering clear of flocks of tourists in town, seeking isolation. That was my goal: to find the best seawater, largely untouched by people. Harvested seawater was then
I ditched trying to be something I wasn't.
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