At the meeting of 15th November and following a meal, plans for the Christmas meeting were discussed, as well as more detail of the club’s Christmas Post. Following these business topics, we enjoyed a talk from Darren Peattie, who is founder and managing director of the East Neuk Salt Company.

Darren provided a hugely enthusiastic insight to his crowd-funded enterprise, which was founded in 2019 and produces around four tons per month of the highest quality sea salt. Total capital of £238,000 is invested.

He explained that the core of the company is all about promoting and collaborating with other local businesses to celebrate the vibrant food scene of the East Neuk. Darren made reference to the 250 year old history of salt production here and to the remains of the old salt pans at St Monans.

It was interesting to see photographs of the salt production equipment - a vacuum evaporation process is used, meaning that water evaporates at 40 degrees, rather than at the normal 100 degree boiling point of water. The cleanliness of used filters attested to the quality of the local sea water used. Salt concentration is typically about 3.5% by weight, meaning that 1000 litres of water will yield 35 Kg of salt.

We heard of Darren’s ambitious plans to market this high quality salt via a range of specially developed products and through a number of local enterprises. Altogether a most impressive story.

Following questions Steve Blaney proposed a vote of thanks.