45 Years in the Salt Fields: A Father and Son Carrying On the Trade

He stresses that if the salinity is not kept right, the salt production runs into problems.

He first came to help out out of concern for his father's age, but says he was surprised by how much harder the work was than he expected.

The father feels reassured to no longer carry the salt field work alone since his son came home, but the son says the work is harder than he anticipated.

Jeong Gap-hun explains that the solar sea salt produced here has a clean taste without bitterness, thanks to the plankton and minerals in the seawater.

Tidal flats rich in plankton have a positive effect on the flavor and quality of the solar sea salt.

To solve the problem of a shortage of workers, the son introduced an automatic salt-harvesting machine, the "Yongari," in an effort to modernize the salt field.

Despite his son's efforts, the father insists on the traditional method of shoveling the salt by hand, regardless of the machine.

No matter how convenient the machine is, the father chooses to load the salt into the cart by hand, showing his strong attachment to traditional methods.

Jeong Gap-hun has lived as a salt farmer for 45 years to provide for his children, and has endured the hard years with an unwavering conviction about salt.

His son Jeong Ji-hun vows to keep doing this work until his father says he can no longer go on.

For the son, the salt field is the place where his father's life and years carry on as the family business, and an important space that continues the family's history.

Son Jeong Ji-hun proposes bringing in a small excavator to improve the efficiency of the salt field work, saying it would reduce his father's laborious shoveling.

The father, by contrast, argues that the salt field is too narrow for machines and insists that manual work is unavoidable.

This shows the generational and perspective gap between father and son over how the salt field work should be done.

Jeong Gap-hun lets the salt piled high like a mountain mature for five years while the bittern drains out, producing high-quality solar sea salt.

He sees salt production as a kind of mining, calling himself and his son miners, and expresses his pride in that.

Solar sea salt produced through such long time and effort reflects the hard work of the Jeong father and son.

Jeong Gap-hun insists on the manual work of putting salt into a dehydrator to remove fine dust and drain the remaining bittern completely.

His finger joints have been deformed by the repetitive manual labor, but he says this meticulous process is the secret to removing the bitter taste of the salt and bringing out its sweet umami.

He stresses that the salt cannot be bitter if the bittern is drained well, and that this effort is essential to making high-quality solar sea salt.

The father and son end their grueling day by spreading solar sea salt they harvested themselves thickly on a hot plate and grilling pork belly over it.

This simple yet special meal shows the warm bond of the father and son sharing food together after physical labor.

The father expresses his satisfaction with the food his son prepares for him, enjoying a special end to the day at the salt field.

The mother reveals the mixed feelings of being reassured that her son has come home to work with them, while also worrying that the grueling labor will be too much for him.

The son voices concern that his father works excessively without regard to his age, and affection among family members coexists with conflict over the intensity of the labor.

The parents' divided hearts carry both gratitude and regret that their son stays by their side even knowing how hard it is.