The bold, intense flavour of Vatsonga heritage Baleni salt has made it an international fine-dining favourite. It is sourced from the Baleni geothermal mineral spring, within an otherwise arid Mopane veld wilderness, southeast of Giyani, near the village of Shawela, Limpopo.
The harvesting area was declared a Natural Heritage Site in 1999. Archaeological finds indicate that the ancestors of contemporary salt collectors have been working at Baleni since the early Iron Age and that the region was part of medieval international trade routes linking Southern Africa with the Swahili coast and right across the Indian Ocean.
At the Baleni Salt Project Association salt is harvested in winter according to traditional, ritualised practices, many of which include interaction with the spiritual realm. Before work can begin mphahlo offerings must be made at the foot of the revered motswiri tree in order to thank the ancestors for nature’s bounty and to obtain permission to enter the sacred site. Only women are allowed to work with the salt spring and all the movements they make (every single step and gesture) are governed by a secret symbolic language.
Copy: 100+ Flavours Report published by Studio H
www.studio-h.co.za/100-flavours-report
The bold, intense flavour of Vatsonga heritage Baleni salt has made it an international fine-dining favourite. It is sourced from the Baleni geothermal mineral spring, within an otherwise arid Mopane veld wilderness, southeast of Giyani, near the village of Shawela, Limpopo.
The harvesting area was declared a Natural Heritage Site in 1999. Archaeological finds indicate that the ancestors of contemporary salt collectors have been working at Baleni since the early Iron Age and that the region was part of medieval international trade routes linking Southern Africa with the Swahili coast and right across the Indian Ocean.
At the Baleni Salt Project Association salt is harvested in winter according to traditional, ritualised practices, many of which include interaction with the spiritual realm. Before work can begin mphahlo offerings must be made at the foot of the revered motswiri tree in order to thank the ancestors for nature’s bounty and to obtain permission to enter the sacred site. Only women are allowed to work with the salt spring and all the movements they make (every single step and gesture) are governed by a secret symbolic language.
Copy: 100+ Flavours Report published by Studio H
www.studio-h.co.za/100-flavours-report
The bold, intense flavour of Vatsonga heritage Baleni salt has made it an international fine-dining favourite. It is sourced from the Baleni geothermal mineral spring, within an otherwise arid Mopane veld wilderness, southeast of Giyani, near the village of Shawela, Limpopo.
The harvesting area was declared a Natural Heritage Site in 1999. Archaeological finds indicate that the ancestors of contemporary salt collectors have been working at Baleni since the early Iron Age and that the region was part of medieval international trade routes linking Southern Africa with the Swahili coast and right across the Indian Ocean.
At the Baleni Salt Project Association salt is harvested in winter according to traditional, ritualised practices, many of which include interaction with the spiritual realm. Before work can begin mphahlo offerings must be made at the foot of the revered motswiri tree in order to thank the ancestors for nature’s bounty and to obtain permission to enter the sacred site. Only women are allowed to work with the salt spring and all the movements they make (every single step and gesture) are governed by a secret symbolic language.
Copy: 100+ Flavours Report published by Studio H
www.studio-h.co.za/100-flavours-report
