Morocco 2/16/2024 - 3/2/2024 |
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Thursday 2/29/2024 - Argan Oil Cooperative, Winery, EssaouiraWe woke up at 7:30 a.m. and had breakfast in the Pixel room at 8:30. We had pastries, msemen, omelettes (Craig had veggie and I had cheese), bread, orange juice, yogurt, fresh fruit, and coffee. The dining room was busier at this time and we were seated next to two American couples. We taught them the trick to seeing the Pixel room's decor through their phone camera, and chatted with them about Morocco. Their trip had begun in Portugal and Spain. Today they would be doing the hike in the High Atlas Mountains that we had done yesterday, so we spoke to them a bit about that as they wanted to know what to expect.We had invited Jamal to show up at 9:45 for our 10 o'clock departure, as we wanted to show him the Pixel room and the Library. The decor is just so cool! We then showed him our suite (#3), and the secret door in the lobby as we checked out. Before leaving town, we needed to visit an ATM, and we needed to buy stamps to send two postcards. One was to a friend in Finland who had requested a postcard from the Sahara, and the other was for a project that a teacher in East Greenland was conducting. She had asked for people to send postcards to her 4th graders as a way to kickstart their interest in geography. The post office was not open yet, but Jamal found someone who sold us two postcard stamps, and I put the postcards into the mailbox. (By 3/23, the East Greenland card had reached its destination!) We went to the ATM, and then were ready to leave Marrakech for Essaouira. On the way south to Essaouira, we stopped at Khmissa Argan, an Amazigh women’s argan oil cooperative. We arrived there at around 12:20 p.m. Argan oil is higly prized for its use in food products and cosmetics. The argan tree is indigenous to Morocco and Algeria. There was a herd of goats in the parking lot. Goats are famous for climbing argan trees to eat the seeds. I didn't stop to take a photo of the goats as we were being ushered into the cooperative. I figured that I would get a photo on our way out. The women who work at the cooperative were singing and ululating as they hit the argan seeds with stones to crack and remove the shell. They were obviously enjoying themselves. With much laughter, they invited us to sit down with them as the argan processing was explained to us. Once they remove the shell from the argan seed, the seed is either roasted (if being used for a food product) or used it as-is (for cosmetics). I got to add seeds to a stone hand-mill (r'ha, in Arabic) and turn the top stone via a wooden handle. A thick, oily brown liquid is extracted from the seeds, and is collected in grooves in the lower stone. We were served tea and given some culinary grade argan oil to taste. We dipped bread into the plain oil, and also tasted amlu, a thick brown paste made by grinding roasted almonds and argan oil together and adding honey. It had a consistency similar to a nut butter. They then demonstrated the cosmetic products that they sell, including hair serums, soaps, lip balms, face masks, etc. We purchased gardenia argan oil hair serum, two small containers of coconut argan oil lip balm, and crystallized eucalyptus for congestion. You add it to boiling water and it becomes like Vicks Vaporub on steroids. It was not cheap ($55 for all), but that is due to the fact that extracting argan oil is not only labor intensive, but it takes 88 pounds of argan fruit to provide just one liter of oil. We were happy to contribute to this women's cooperative which employs Amazigh women in such a grass roots way. We spent half an hour at the argan oil cooperative. When it was time to get back in the car, the goats were no longer there, having been brought to pasture somewhere. There was nothing else on today's itinerary once we reached Essaouira, and Jamal offered us the opportunity to stop at a winery for lunch and a wine tasting on the way. Even though we're not big wine people, this sounded good to us. We had enjoyed the Moroccan wine that we had sampled on our motorcycle sidecar tour. Half an hour later, we arrived at Le Val d'Argan winery. This is Morocco's most southern winery (most wine is produced in the north near Meknes). We took a short tour of the area where fermentation, aging, and bottling occur. Fermentation lasts longer for red wines. The vineyard produces 300,000 bottles per year, 90% of which are consumed locally in Morocco. The remaining 10% are exported to the U.S. and France. This was surprising to us, as Morocco's population of Muslims largely don't drink. After the tour, we were led to a beautiful outdoor patio surrounding a swimming pool. The pool was surrounded by whimsically painted wine barrels. We were shown to a table in the shade. For just $35 per person, we were served a 3-course lunch and a serve-yourself all-you-can-drink wine tasting of 6 different types of wine. The wine bottles were housed in half of a wine barrel laying on its side. The staff showed us the 6 types of wine and the recommended order for drinking them with the meal. Then we were on our own. We were a little bit shy at first; coming from Massachusetts where the liquor laws are very strict, this all seemed a bit overwhelming. We had huge wine glasses and could just serve ourselves as much of six different wines as we wanted? Wow! I took note of the order we were supposed to follow, and poured us our first glasses of Perle Grise de Mogador. We were served bread with olive oil produced from trees on the property. The appetizer course was an elaborate salad: beans, carrots, beets, eggplant, tomatoes, rice, cucumber, and zucchini. The next wine was Perle Rose de Mogador, followed by Perle Blanche de Mogador. The next course was beef kafta and chicken skewers. This was paired with Perle Noire de Mogador and Les Fleurs du Val. Chocolate pie for dessert was paired with the dessert wine Perle Orange de Mogador. The food and the wine were delicious, and we enjoyed sitting in the shade and enjoying the lovely scenery while we ate and drank. We got to meet the owner of the winery, Mr. Charles Melia. He was also eating lunch outdoors, and took the time to greet each of the guests. By the time we were done eating and drinking, we were convinced that the 90% of their production which is consumed locally is probably all consumed on premises as part of this all-you-can-drink wine tasting experience! We were rather tipsy by the time we left. Craig is not really a wine drinker, so it hit him a little harder than it did me (plus he had a whole extra glass that I didn't have). We got back into the car and continued south. We pulled over when we reached the coast to get a view of the ocean and take some photos. About an hour after leaving the winery, we arrived in Essaouira. Our hotel was within the city walls, and no cars are allowed, so once again Majid dropped us off. We said goodnight to him, and Jamal helped Craig navigate his way to the riad while we followed a porter who took our luggage in a handcart. We checked into Riad Chbatane and said goodbye to Jamal for the evening. We were all laughing because Craig was a little tipsy and kept saying that he had had "wine, wine, and more wine." "Too much wine." By the time we got settled in the room on the second floor, Craig just needed to sleep it off; he was shutting down. I wanted to go out and explore a bit, but I was cautious because I would be alone and didn't know my way around. I had hoped to find the ocean, but I didn't actually venture that far. I just went out of the city walls the way we had come in, and then entered again via a parallel street. I saw some street cats and saw the sun setting in the distance. One man who sold slippers invited me into his shop. He was a bit forward, and it was the first time I had experienced this as we usually had Jamal with us to run interference. I hadn't brought any money with me, so I couldn't buy anything even if I wanted to, and we left it that I was welcome to return tomorrow to buy some slippers if I so chose. I came back to the room and Craig was already fast asleep. I did some Facebook and Instagram posts and then went to bed early. Khmissa Argan Le Val d'Argan Riad Chbanate |
 Argan oil cooperative  Le Val d'Argan  Le Val d'Argan  Lunch at Le Val d'Argan  Arrival at the coast: Steph, Jamal, and Craig  Essaouira  Essaouira street cats  Essaouira See all photos from February 29 |
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