Greatest Of All Time - The Moroccan GOAT

Atlas the Goat. And the Greatest Of All Time

Before coming to Morocco my only knowledge of argan oil was that it was advertised as an exotic ingredient in shampoo on the shelves of Target. Argan oil is an important export of Morocco and seemingly only grows well in a select area in Morocco. Everyone who speaks of this region says that the soil must be special because attempts in other areas have failed. After visiting this region of Tiout, I understand why they say this - an incredibly special place. I was lucky enough witness some of the production process - in various bits...

Step one: Get it out of the trees

Harvest the argan nuts. This. Blew. My. Mind. Goats, they actually climb trees, eat the argan nuts. Goat herders let their goats loose to go to town on the argan trees. They seemingly defy gravity as they munch from branch to branch and are in a complete zen mode.

Step two: Get it out of the goats

I was very confused by this - how exactly do we get the nut out of the goats digestive track? As soon as I heard that goats eat the nuts and regurgitate them hours later I immediately felt bad for the goats because I thought this was forced. Turns out it is a completely natural process. Goats digest the outside layer of the argan nut and regurgitate the seed that their stomach isn't strong enough to properly digest. Once the seeds are regurgitated farmers collect the seeds and send them to a women's cooperative for oil production.

Step three: Cracking the argan nut shell

I was very impressed that all of the argan was produced at a women's cooperative. We did have a look around, but only minimal photos were allowed. Which is completely understandable. As we entered the "seed cracking room" I was greeted by about 30 women sitting on the ground and working hard. It was an amazing sound of hearing stones cracking the thousands of nuts. They were gracious enough to let me try. Take a small stone, place the nut sideways, and crack it on a larger stone. Easy, right? Well, I failed. And failed again. And again. I looked to my left and right and the women were able to crack these nuts in about 3 seconds flat before seemlessly moving on to the next. It was amazing. The outer shells are collected and used as fire kindling. The interior seeds move on to the next step.

Step four: Press the seed and extract the oil

Nothing goes to waste. Once the seeds are pressed into oil, the remaining parts are pressed and used as animal feed.

Tiout and irrigation:

The town of Tiout itself is just stunning. Fortress ruins, a stunning oasis and water canals utilizing water from the mountain for agriculture. Keeping trend with the argan, not a drop of water goes to waste in its complex, yet simple irrigation system. A person works the irrigation system by keeping track of time for each field and rerouting the canals when switching fields. If a farmer doesn't need water that day, the water is given to a different farmer.

A valuable lesson learned from the Moroccans... A complete agricultural circle. Nothing must go to waste.