Are you ready to hear a real English conversation? Let's get started.

Vanessa: Today, I have something super special to share

with you. I met an interesting woman whose family runs a salt business. Yes, salt. You're

going to meet Carla and hear how her family started the salt business three generations

ago. You'll also learn some differences and different types of salt and just some interesting

insight into something that every human needs, but we don't often think about. I'm sure that

you also have things that you're passionate about, so it's a good chance to listen to

our conversation and try to imitate the way that we speak.

Vanessa: Throughout this conversation, you're going

to see subtitles down here. That's going to show some vocabulary, phrasal verbs, and important

pronunciation that we're going to talk about after the conversation lesson, because after

the conversation lesson with Carla, you're going to hear a vocabulary lesson between

my husband Dan and I, where we're going to explain some important vocabulary expressions

that you heard in the conversation with Carla. I hope that you're going to be able to remember

these expressions a little bit better, because we're having a natural conversation about

those expressions. Vanessa:

Then, you'll have a grammar lesson, where we focus on some important phrasal verbs that

you heard in the conversation with Carla. And finally, at the end, we'll have a pronunciation

lesson where we'll focus on some important sentences that you heard in the conversation

and how you can accurately pronounce those yourself to try to speak as naturally as possible.

Vanessa: This is a pretty big lesson. There's a lot

going on. We've got the conversation, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. So, you can always

click on CC, which is the subtitles, so that you can catch every word that we talk about.

If you enjoy this lesson, I hope that you can join me in the Fearless Fluency Club,

where you'll get a lesson set like this every month. Today, you're only going to see a little

bit less than half of one lesson set, but each month, I send you a new lesson set, a

full one, where you can learn about new topics, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and practice

using those conversation skills yourself. Vanessa:

All right, let's go meet Carla. Hi, everyone! I'm here with Carla, and Carla has a quite

interesting family business to share with us. I've got some visual aids as well, but

I'll let you explain. What do you say you do, or what would you say your family does?

How would you describe it? Carla:

Sure. I am third generation in a sea salt family business.

Vanessa: Okay.

Carla: My grandfather, back in the '70s, was the

first to start importing sea salt from out of the country. He brought it over in suitcases,

and he didn't know how much to charge. He was like, "I don't know, I'll bag it up, and

give me $5." And that's kind of set the price for the next 30 years. We just kept it there.

Vanessa: Really?

Carla: Yeah.

Vanessa: So, he just thought, "Oh, people will buy

this." That's cool. Carla:

Yeah. Vanessa:

Was he doing that back home, or... Carla:

No. He is from Belgium, originally, or he was. He passed away. But yeah, he was best

friends with Michio Kushi, who was the person that brought macrobiotics into the United

States. Vanessa:

Oh, okay. Carla:

And Michio told him, "You need to bring sea salt into this country because there's going

to be a shortage of minerals at some point, and they're going to need this." So my grandfather

traveled all over Europe trying to find the most clean, most high mineral sea salt he

could find, which he settled into the coast of Brittany, France, and this little town

called Guérande. Vanessa:

Okay. Carla:

And they do this ancient harvesting technique that was originated by Celts.

Vanessa: Okay. So that's where this originated, the

name. Carla:

Yeah, they think that it was from the Celts that originally did it, but then studies have

shown that it dates back even further with this harvesting technique in Asia.

Vanessa: Wow.

Carla: Which they're always doing something before

the rest of us. Vanessa:

Sure. Carla:

So instead of boiling the water, boiling to evaporate it and using up all the valuable

wood that they needed for other things back then, they realize that they needed to create

these ponds using these clay beds and let the sun and the wind do the evaporation for

them. So this started a very sustainable practice that has lasted hundreds of years, and it's

still there today. Vanessa:

Wow. It's, it's incredible that they had the thought process to say, "We need to save wood.

Let's use what we've got." Nature, the sun. Carla:

Right. Vanessa:

To be able to do that, So at this point are the origins of the salt still in that area?

Carla: So we import from all over the world, and

we have found some really fascinating high-tech ways that they're still sustainably harvesting

and producing all different kinds of salts with different mineral composition.

Vanessa: So I would love to hear more about that in

detail. Carla:

Yeah. Vanessa:

I want to show them the salt that you brought. Carla:

Sure. Vanessa:

Is this available internationally? Carla:

It is. Vanessa:

Okay. So maybe they've seen this. Is it mainly in Europe or could be anywhere?

Carla: Parts of Europe. We're also in Malaysia, Australia.

We were working on China a few years ago, but they have a lot of laws around it with

it having to be iodized. They've lifted that since, but it's a huge investment to, as you

can imagine, to tackle that kind of distribution. And we're still a family-owned company. We've

never had investors. Everything has been grassroots grown.

Vanessa: Wow, that's really amazing. So if you see

this brand, the Celtic Sea Salt, I'll put links to all the websites.

Carla: Okay.

Vanessa: So you can check it out. But if you see that,

that's the company we're talking about, and this one's the fine ground, regular kind of

white, what you kind of recognize as salt. Carla:

Right. Vanessa:

But there's also other ones that you brought. Carla:

Right, so the light gray are these in these grinders, which this is the same salt, but

they just don't grind that for you for convenience. They didn't really have that available before

we kind of started demanding it from our providers, saying that the Americans really want their

shakers. They don't do the European way of grinding or pinching their salt.

Vanessa: Oh, got you.

Carla: So we're the ones that brought the fine ground

here. Yeah. Vanessa:

So that is a cultural thing. I guess it depends on what your family is used to using.

Carla: Exactly.

Vanessa: But just shaking it, especially at a restaurant,

that's really common that this is more a European-type style. Got you.

Carla: It is.

Vanessa: It probably has some steam in Asheville, though,

I imagine. Carla:

Oh, yeah. Some people, they're like, "Oh, I like to pinch it, and I like to grind it

and I like to shake it. So it's a kind of a funny little question we have at shows and

stuff. Vanessa:

How would you like to serve yourself? Carla:

Right. Vanessa:

So can you tell me a little bit about the different types of salt? And I am quite ignorant

about that except for just hearsay that I've heard. And of course, what you see, different

colors and whatnot. Carla:

Yeah, I mean, salt, I mean it can be an endless topic. There's so many different kinds, everything

from mass industrial salt that we use that you see like in the Morton shaker that has

been highly processed and things added and removed and anti-caking agents. For our table

salt, they originally started putting iodine into the salt to help with a goiter issue

a long time ago, which it did help, but the iodine actually caused a discoloration to

the salt so they had to bleach it. Vanessa:

Oh, interesting. Carla:

The bleaching caused it to be bitter, so they had to sweeten it. So they added dextrose,

which caused it to be sticky so it wouldn't shake out of the jar. So they added anti-caking

agent chemicals. Vanessa:

One thing on top of another. Carla:

So what we have kind of come to terms with is we've realized the salt is actually perfect

in its own way, and yes there is an iodine deficiency which we created a seaweed seasoning

to help with that. Vanessa:

Oh, interesting. Carla:

Because there was a demand people asking for us to put iodine in our salt. But because

of all those complications, we were like, let's leave our salt alone. Keep it in its

whole form that the body knows what to do with. And then we offered a a seaweed seasoning.

But you'll see all different colors and all those different colors come from different

mineral compositions coming from the different regions. We even have a super white, white

salt from Hawaii that is super white cause it comes from 2,000 feet under the surface

of the water at the base of a volcano. Vanessa:

Whoa. How did someone find that? Carla:

People know us in the industry as we kind of have figured out ways to launch these amazing

commodities into the U.S. market, and the U.S. market's one of the hardest ones to tap

into. Vanessa:

Really? Carla:

Yeah, when you're importing from other countries. Vanessa:

Okay. Carla:

So a lot of people write us letters and send us samples. We get dozens a month.

Vanessa: Wow, saying, "Can you please get us the part

of this?" Carla:

Yes. And that was just one that somebody came to us at a trade show and said, "You've got

to check this salt out." And it's an amazing salt. It's beautiful, and it's clean, and

it has a great source of potassium and calcium. Vanessa:

Okay. So I'm curious, when you say that it's great and it's clean, does that affect the

taste of it? Carla:

Yes. Vanessa:

Because this term of, "Oh, it's salty. It tastes like salt."

Carla: Right.

Vanessa: Is there a difference?

Carla: There is, and you'll start to notice, once

you start to taste different salts side by side, you'll start to go, "Oh, wow, I can

taste that this one's a little more bitter. This one's a little more like has a saline

taste." When you taste oysters, some people go, it's just slimy. But when you become create

a palate for it, you go, "Oh, this is more briny, or this one tastes more fresh." Or

you start to kind of compare. Same with wine or beer or cheeses, you just start to understand

different notes. A higher sodium content, you're going to have more of a bitter taste.

With higher minerals such as magnesium, potassium, and calcium, you're having a little more mild

or tastes almost like an ocean flavor. Vanessa:

Okay. Carla:

And it naturally enhances the flavor of your food as opposed to just making it salty.

Vanessa: Oh, got you. So it's really going to work

with the things that you're putting it on in a different way. I'm really curious now

after this, to taste this side by side with what I've got at home and if I have any different

types at home to see. Carla:

And the key with salt tasting is you want to start off with the highest mineral content

salt going to the highest sodium salt because once your taste buds have been triggered in

their bitter and sodium levels, you can't taste the difference of the other things.

So you got to kind of work your way up. I used to host salt parties in California. Yeah.

Vanessa: Wow! I would love to go to that.

Carla: Yeah, it was so much fun. We made cocktails

and... Vanessa:

Yeah, what do you do at a salt party? Carla:

Yeah, it's a lot of drinks. Vanessa:

Okay. You put them on the rim? Carla:

On the rim. Vanessa:

Okay. Carla:

And I did a lot of like things like edamame with salt on it or fun things where you would

need the salt on it. And then we did a salt tasting where I would show people how to kind

of taste the different notes of salt and the textures.

Vanessa: The education part of it.

Carla: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Vanessa: Because it's not just like you said, it tastes

salty, but it could actually bring out other flavor notes in the food.

Carla: Even the shape of the crystals will cause

a different kind of, where is it going to burst in your mouth? How is it going to break

down in your mouth? Like these crystals are very coarse, so some people are a little bit,

you know, they need it to be ground up because it's strong. Whereas a flake salt, which we

offer as well, kind of dissipates in your mouth and it's not as like potent.

Vanessa: Okay. And that's actually flat flakes of salts.

Carla: Yeah.

Vanessa: Okay. I feel like I've seen that in a picture