Asbury Park Sea Salt is a female, LGBTQ+-owned company that hand-harvests edible sea salt from the Atlantic Ocean, creating a product that embodies the unique character of the Jersey Shore. Whether sprinkled over fresh vegetables, used to finish a perfectly grilled steak, or stirred into a pot of homemade caramel, the salt brings an unmistakable taste of the sea and a touch of Asbury Park’s unique spirit to every dish. The small business is making waves — and using waves — to elevate the art of seasoning while representing the creativity and community-centered focus of the diverse Jersey Shore entrepreneurs shaping the local landscape. Read on to learn more about Asbury Park Sea Salt, the artisanal, hand-harvested sea salt that comes directly from the iconic shores of Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Photo Credit: Jessica Norton

About Danielle Hickson

Danielle Hickson (also known around Asbury Park by her music moniker Dano) is the creator and founder of Asbury Park Sea Salt. Danielle is a singer, songwriter, and musician who writes for musical theater, teaches music lessons, and performs her original songs. After falling in love with attending and shopping at the local markets in the Asbury Park area, she knew she wanted to get involved by selling her own product. She felt drawn to start creating something that she could hold in her hands. As an Asbury Park local and an ocean lover, the idea to harvest sea salt popped into her head and she immediately began to research the science behind it.

Photo Credit: Jessica Norton

“I feel like for every big life event for the past few years I just immediately go to the beach,” Danielle told The Jersey Shore Girl. “I have a strong connection to the ocean and nothing felt better to me than making a product that is directly sourced from the Asbury Park beach.”

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The salty singer admits that while she is not a great cook, she loves eating and always uses add-ons, like salt, spices, and sauces, to compensate for her cooking skills.

Diving Into Harvesting Sea Salt

Photo Credit: Danielle Hickson

With the help of a Chemistry for Dummies book, Danielle began experimenting and researching all the tools and methods needed to harvest sea salt. Despite not having a science background, she said that the process felt very natural.

“A lot of it was just intuition,” she said, “I’m a crunchy person – I eat all organic. I’m concerned about the quality of our water. So thinking about testing the water for heavy metals, filtering the water, the dehydration process, it was all pretty instinctual.”

After Danielle made her first batch of homemade, harvested sea salt in her kitchen — with just a water bottle full of ocean water — she was shocked at how delicious it was. The singer-turned-seaside scientist immediately began to take regular trips to Asbury Park Beach with four five-gallon buckets to fill up with salt water, load in her car, and bring home to harvest more. The buckets have since been swapped to 10 two-gallon buckets, as Danielle is currently pregnant and not able to carry that much weight. The mom-to-be loves stepping into her waterproof waders to collect salt water and even though she now has to take more trips back and forth to the car, she finds the process to be extremely meditative.

“I am not the best person to go to the gym regularly so this is my workout,” Danielle laughed, “I love going to the beach. I am very grateful to the ocean for letting me come out and take this water. I always draw a symbol of gratitude in the sand before I leave. I feel like the ocean is alive and I don’t want it to be mad at me for taking its resources. I am always so grateful to take just what we need. If you ever see a swirly mark in the sand [on the Asbury Park beach] that’s me. You’ll know I was there.”

Photo Credit: Danielle Hickson

The real science project starts once the buckets get to Danielle’s kitchen where she tests for heavy metals and filters the water. The tests and filtering are followed by lengthy processes of boiling, evaporating, and crystallizing. The time from going to the beach and collecting the salt water to when it is jarred for consumers is about seven to 12 days. In her current kitchen, using a stove top burner and an Instapot — which she admitted are both constantly running — she will produce about 15 jars of Asbury Park Sea Salt from 20 gallons of saltwater.

Take It With A Grain of Salt

Photo Credit: Danielle Hickson

Asbury Park Sea Salt is incredibly versatile and can be used in various ways. The more obvious culinary methods include seasoning and baking. Sea salt also has health and wellness benefits such as salt water gargling for sore throats, nasal rinses for congestion, and relaxing bath soaks for stress relief and aching muscles.

“My favorite thing to use the sea salt for is veggies. Especially fresh veggies. It just explodes the flavor,” Danielle told JSG, “Salt makes food taste better. A surprising thing to try is salt on watermelon. I can never eat watermelon without sea salt now. Besides the salty-sweet combination, the salt actually dissolves and extracts all the sugars from the watermelon which makes it so much sweeter. I don’t eat meat but I’ve heard that people like Asbury Park Sea Salt on steak a lot..”

A Seasoned Pro

Photo Credit: Danielle Hickson

Danielle is an active seller at the same Jersey Shore markets she loves to peruse. Her shore-born product constantly sells out due to the long production process and demand. The salt alchemist admits that while she is satisfied with the deliciousness, quality, and texture of the salt she harvests, she will never stop tweaking and testing to see how it can improve.

In the future, she hopes to go commercial — she currently operates under New Jersey’s Cottage Food License, which allows her to produce the product from her home and distribute it directly to her consumers — and plans to invest in a more elaborate and efficient set up for harvesting sea salt. For now, her stovetop runs while she teaches virtual music lessons and she is deeply fulfilled by getting to go through the motions of creating a product that is close to her heart and uniquely special to her home in Asbury Park.

“One of my favorite things when people try my sea salt – especially the locals – is when they have a taste and they go, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve tasted this before! It’s like when I go to the beach and get a little bit of water in my mouth,’ and I’m like, ‘Yes! It’s the exact same flavor!’ You can taste the difference in the salt water and you can taste the distinction of the area,” she said. “If you get ocean water splashed in your mouth and taste it while swimming at the beach here at the Jersey Shore, it's gonna taste different than if you get ocean water in your mouth down in the Caribbean, or in California, or wherever!”

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Asbury Park Sea Salt can be purchased in person at market events listed on its website. At this time, online orders are only able to be delivered to residents in Monmouth County. Special discount pricing is available for bulk orders — for weddings, showers, event favors, etc — with advance notice.

Be sure to follow Asbury Park Sea Salt on Instagram to see which market they will be vending at next.