Jr. Rockhounds, March 4th, 2023

The Junior RockHounds met on March 4.  We were glad to have Erica DeMeritt and her son Ari with us again  for a very interesting program on Salt. We had a short video showing how salt that is mined from the earth is processed  and how sea salt is processed by evaporation.  After the video we tasted a variety of salts such as regular salt, pink Himalayan salt, ice cream salt, kosher salt, smoked salt, black salt, and  black Indian salt. We learned some very interesting salt facts:

• Man stared using salt about 6,000 years ago to season and preserve food
• Salt was so valuable it was used as money
• 3% of the weight of seawater is salt.
• Water with an unusually high  %  of salt are called brines. Dead Sea and Great Salt Lake are examples.
• Sodium is essential for nerve and muscle function and is involved in the regulation of fluids in the body and blood pressure and volume. Chloride ions are important electrolytes , regulating blood PH and blood pressure.   Humans excrete salt when we sweat and we replenish these lost salts thru  our diet.
• Put a little salt in the water for you cut flowers and they will last longer.
• In winter more salt is used on roads than in cooking.
• You can’t drink seawater BUT you can drink water from sea ice.
• We also made ice cream in a plastic bag. Using milk, sugar, cream,and vanilla and our ice cream salt (rock salt)