Everyone who lives in or visits Charleston, South Carolina spends days breathing the salty air, eating the bounty from our healthy waters, playing at the beach and even are challenged by rising tides downtown that flood shops and streets. Bringing that familiar taste into kitchens to share is what Bulls Bay Saltworks is all about.
In 2011 we started a small homestead just outside of Charleston in McClellanville, SC, striving to be as self sufficient as possible. Growing much of our own food, we planted a large garden, got a flock of chickens and a few pigs. We tried to think about simple solutions for a slower paced life.
In the spring of 2012 we hosted a potluck hog roast. We live only a few miles from the coast so we collected seawater to brine the hog. We boiled some of the seawater on the stove to make salt for seasoning the hog as it cooked.
Placing the salt in a bowl on the smoker, Rustin sprinkled the hog with it every few hours as both the hog and the salt smoked. When the food was served everyone was raving about the salt and we knew we should consider making more.
Teresa was growing vegetables and selling produce to a small CSA and through Charleston’s local food hub. We began offering solar evaporated Bulls Bay Sea Salt to our customers and soon realized that we should pursue it as a separate business.
Bulls Bay Saltworks became the first operational salt producer in South Carolina since the Civil War, when the USS James Chambers destroyed the final saltern at Palmetto Point Bulls Bay on February 25, 1865.
We use only pristine water sourced just minutes from downtown Charleston in Cape Romain, a protected Class 1 Wilderness Area (there are only 156 in the entire USA). Our commitment to quality products and the environment lead us to healthier and more sustainable salt harvesting.
—Rustin & Teresa Gooden, Bulls Bay Saltworks