Narrator: On day one,
harvesters cut out these river reeds.
And in eight days, after drying,
burning,
and filtering,
the reeds will produce one of the most expensive salts
in the world.
Just 1 tablespoon of river reed salt
costs about $1 in Kenya.
Compare that to the 4 cents it costs locals
for the same amount of sea salt.
So how do producers make salt from river reeds?
And why is it so expensive?
River reed salt, or chumvi ya kienyeji,
is made from the reeds of the muchua plant
that grow along the Nzoia River.
Once the salt is extracted,
it's typically sold in small quantities
to chefs and luxury-hotel owners in Kenya and abroad.
Buyers describe its saltiness as powerful and umami-like.
I buy the river reed salt because of,
I will say, the magic in it.
The texture is smooth.
It is not rough or coarse.
For those who have tasted umami from Japan,
it tastes almost the same,
but this one has more of a sharp taste.
So when you're cooking with it,
you won't use a lot of it.
Narrator: Today, only the Bukusu community
in the village of Webuye continues the traditional process
of making this rare salt by hand.
This is the Nzoia River,
and this is Andrew Wanyonyi Sikanga.
Andrew and his sons harvest the reeds
that grow along the riverbanks.
Before they go out to harvest,
Andrew starts the morning with a prayer.
They pray for protection from the dangers
they might encounter at the river,
like snakes and crocodiles.
To avoid coming into contact with them,
Andrew and his sons need to harvest early.
Narrator: Today, they're looking for ripe river reeds.
Narrator: If the reed isn't at least 2 meters tall
and the flowers at the top aren't wilted and nearly dried,
the concentration of salt will be too low.
Andrew hacks away at the ripe reeds,
being careful not to uproot the plant
or cut too close to the roots.
That way, the reeds can regrow more quickly,
and the roots can continue to spread onto other rocks.
Only reeds with a high salt content
make the effort worth it, because from them,
Andrew can make enough salt to sell.
Narrator: Though there was a mild injury,
today's harvest was a good one.
After a long day of navigating the waters
of the Nzoia River, Andrew and his sons
leave the riverbank with a lot of reeds.
Narrator: Those 20 tablespoons will sell for about $20.
Now, they can begin the long,
manual process of extracting salt.
First, Andrew must dry the reeds.
Drying reeds can take four days when the skies are sunny,
but in cloudier weather, it'll take longer.
To begin processing, he has to burn the reeds
for one to three days.
Once all the reeds turn to ash,
Andrew places them in a large pot with drainage holes.
Then he slowly adds water.
The water filters through the ashes and holes,
each drop collecting at the bottom.
He pours those droplets through another filter
and into an aluminum pan.
Next, he places the pan over an open fire,
where the solution is left to boil
until the liquid evaporates.
Finally, after a full day of work,
Andrew is left with this wet, salty paste.
The next day, he packs the paste into banana leaves
and places them under hot ashes to dry.
After three hours, the salt hardens.
From reed to salt, the process takes at least eight days.
Andrew will sell the salt in the banana leaves.
This is the same long process
his family has practiced for generations.
Narrator: It's believed the tradition began
in the 17th century
when the Bukusu people migrated eastward from Congo.
At the time, areas in western Kenya
were cut off from salt routes.
So they set out to find a way to extract salt
from these aquatic plants.
Centuries later, the salt that was made out of necessity
became a pricey commodity.
At the market, this pack containing
just 3 tablespoons of river reed salt
costs about $3, and this larger pack, $7.
It's likely to sell, because local demand is high.
Buyers know the intense work put into making this salt,
so for them, the price is worth it.
Although there aren't studies to confirm it,
market sellers say that part of what keeps the salt
in high demand locally
is the belief it has special medicinal properties.
But the most notable feature is its taste.
In fact, Andrew's river reed salt won the title
for most unique indigenous salt
at an international gastronomy exhibition
in Italy in 2014.
Slow Food, one of the organizers of the exhibition,
established a presidium in 2009
for Kenya's river reed salt
to drive more demand for the product.
But fulfilling that demand would require more supply,
which is difficult when production is so limited.
One of the biggest threats to river reed salt production
is climate change.
According to Slow Food, the growing population in Kenya
has led to deforestation.
Indigenous trees along the Nzoia River
have long held soil particles together and provided shade,
keeping temperatures stable.
But the loss of these trees,
along with higher temperatures,
unstable river levels, and landslides,
has contributed to the loss of river reeds.
Andrew tried growing the reeds with other water sources
but couldn't get the same outcome.
Narrator: In addition to conservation efforts
like replanting indigenous trees,
Slow Food is working on creating more marshy areas
for the reeds to grow.
Samson: Since the river reed salt
really does well with the waters from the river,
we were thinking that if we try a little bit
to divert some of this water from the river
and have a marshy area plus some of the rocks,
we can actually try to see
whether we can increase the number of reeds,
because I know that as the people continue
knowing about this particular salt,
there will be high demand.
Narrator: This project, along with increased
commercial exposure of river reed salt,
hopes to help producers like Andrew and his sons
keep their work alive for generations to come.