Thanksgiving feasts are always in need of something special. Can a sprinkle of artisanal salt noticeably pump up the experience? Let's meet a new Appalachian salt-maker in West Virginia and find out. J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works is nestled in the Kanawha River Valley, just southeast of the capital city of Charleston in the small town of Malden (not to be confused with Maldon , a sea salt brand from the U.K.). It's mostly pasture land, with cows nearby. Amid the livestock, there's a new, small — you could call it micro — salt works. "This is our well, in the field over here. It goes down 350 feet," Nancy Bruns, CEO of J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works, says. The wellhead is simple, white and about 2 feet high. It took a couple of weeks to drill, and then came the salty water. "It did gush; it absolutely did gush. We went through a lot of fresh water on the way down. And we all had cups, we were tasting it on the way down, and I just said no, keep drilling, it's not salty yet." She's a seventh
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