Danielle Hickson trudges through the current in her waders as she hauls buckets of seawater from the Asbury Park shoreline. A beach-maintenance worker affectionately yells out, “Salt girl!”—now a recurring greeting—as Hickson lugs 40 gallons of water to her car.
This arduous effort is the first step in a weeklong sea salt-making process that Hickson has been perfecting for more than a year and a half. She runs her small business, Asbury Park Sea Salt, out of her Tinton Falls home kitchen and has sold nearly 1,000 jars of sea salt since her first market in April 2024. From the very first taste she had of her product, Hickson had a series of life-changing realizations.
“I said, number one, I’m never eating table salt again. Number two, I’m only getting my salt from the ocean. And number three,” she says, “this is definitely my business idea.”
It only seemed natural that Hickson’s newfound seasoning discovery would translate into her own company. Having received her MBA from Rutgers in 2018, she’s always had an entrepreneur’s mindset. A music instructor and songwriter, Hickson has also attempted to build a brand for her music under the name Dano.
The other obvious piece of the puzzle? She’s a bona fide Jersey Shore girl. “You can never pry me away. I’ll be here forever, I think,” she says of the Garden State’s coast.
Hickson’s epiphany came in late 2023 after seeing a social media post describing how to make sea salt at home. Without skipping a beat, she sped to the ocean and collected the seawater in a bottle, despite the winter weather and lack of proper gear.
After giving herself a crash course in sea salt making—including actually reading Chemistry for Dummies—she invested about $2,500 in equipment. Inspired by Maldon Salt and Jacobsen Salt Co., she aims to create a light, flaky product. This requires adjusting the water’s temperature and salinity level and modifying the dehydration process to get different textures.
Photo: James J. Connolly
“I had to do some experimenting to get the perfect sea salt,” says Hickson. After straining the water through a filter to remove the sediment, she boils it for 12 to 15 hours before letting it evaporate in a pan for three to seven days. “I do feel like a chemist sometimes,” she adds.
Hickson’s pursuit of the perfect recipe hasn’t come without its blunders, like the time salty brine spilled onto her kitchen floor during the evaporation process.
“I have metal chairs, and salt eats metal,” Hickson says. “I have wooden floors, and I still can’t get the brine out from the little crevices. I feel sorry for the people who live here next.”
State regulations and bureaucratic hurdles have also posed challenges. As of now, Asbury Park Sea Salt operates under the Cottage Food Operator Permit, a New Jersey license that allows proprietors to sell certain kinds of homemade foods directly to consumers. But there’s a catch—Hickson can only deliver to consumers by hand, limiting the scope of her business to Monmouth County. Customers can purchase her goods at asburyparkseasalt.com.
Photo: James J. Connolly
Aside from taking on the role of delivery driver, Hickson sells her product at markets such as Bell Works Fresh and Asbury Fresh. By next year, she hopes to take her business to the commercial level with help from the Asbury Park Food Collective, an organization that offers a commercial kitchen and assists small food entrepreneurs like Hickson. This would allow her to expand production, make deals with retailers, and sell her product outside of Monmouth County. “I’d love to be one of the premier sea salt brands on the East Coast,” says Hickson.
With big aspirations for the future, Hickson is focused on taking things one jar at a time and enjoying every step of the process, from sea to table. “I am the crazy salt lady, and I love it,” she says.
No one knows New Jersey like we do. Sign up for one of our free newsletters here. Want a print magazine mailed to you? Purchase an issue from our online store.
