Salt

Yes I know too much is bad for us (although my recent Internet wandering suggest this is due to our consumption of sodium chloride, rather than unrefined natural salt). However, we’re suffering from a shortage of table salt in the prettylittle household. I’d added it to the ‘items to buy’ list that resides on an old diary page on the side of the fridge. So Saturday morning I dashed off to our idyllic, 1950s-Ladybird-illustration type high street to do my usual rounds of grocery purchases before heading off to a wedding.

I usually purchase table salt from the Co-op in either a small plastic bag or a cardboard box. Alas they appeared to only have salt in large white dispensers. Dear Heart and I have a ‘retro’ orange salt dispenser that we have been refilling for the last decade or so. Hence the large white container was a no go. Coop was a bit of a dead loss that morning actually as they had no cannelloni or baked beans! I can’t really complain at least they now stock two types of dairy free margarine and are experts when it comes to clear labelling.

However I decided not to be daunted by this. I resolved to make use of the Maldon cooking salt where it was really needed and purchase table salt elsewhere. Well since then I‘ve tried another branch of the Coop, a corner shop and even Tesco. All have table salt in a white container with blue labelling. In fact the similarity between the ‘different’ brands of table salts is astounding.

So what’s going on? Is there a new monopoly on the global salt market that I’ve missed? Am I going to be reduced to searching for ‘salt market news’ on google?

I’d completely forgotten how many things I used it for around the house including cleaning trays from the oven. I might be reduced to trying Marks and Spencer if all else fails. Or Holland and Barrett? Is this a hint that I should reduce my salt consumption? Maybe I won't refill and see how long it is before Dear Heart notices.