On our route back to Marrakech we stopped at several Women’s Co-operatives run by local Berber women. Several of the Canadian women that were travelling with had made a request to our Moroccan Guide guide – the marvellous Ishmael – to find a shop for Argan Oil as it costs a small fortune in Canada and they all appeared to be using it for one thing or another – one of the co-travellers was a lawyer and a client of hers said it had even repaired her marriage whilst doing the same for her skin!
For those of you that aren’t familiar with this product – this is how it is made.
The oil is made from the Argan nut which comes from the Argania spinosa tree which is endemic to the semi- desert Sous valley of south western Morocco. The tree can live to 200 yrs of age. The nut (slightly smaller than an apricot) takes over a year to mature – comparable to an Avocado. Surrounding the nut is pulpy flesh that is used as animal feed.
Argan Oil has always been a rare and precious product which has been used by Moroccan women for centuries. In the old days the nuts were consumed by very acrobatic goats – check it out on You Tube – who climb into the trees, trip trap along the branches gobbling the nuts whole. Once the nut has gone through the goat’s digestive system the softened nut is popped out in the goat’s dropping and duly collected. The laborious business of extracting the kernel then takes place by crushing each one, removing the pit and then grinding this into a paste using a stone quern. These days the goats have been dropped from the equation and the work is done by tireless Berber women.
Argan nuts are still cracked manually to ensure the delicate kernels are kept in tact making Argan Oil the most expensive edible Oil in the world. It takes 30kg of nuts (roughly the entire annual yield of a tree) and 20 hrs of hand pressing to make just two litres of copoking oil or 1 litre of cosmetic oil!
Argan oil has a multitude of uses – cooking, scar healing, nail and hair treatment, anti inflammatory and is also supposed to aid with immunity and blood circulation.
The ladies on our tour purchased Oil, Shampoos, Excema cream, gorgeous rich honey and a blend of honey and roasted almond nuts that leaves peanut butter for dead. The Co-operative we visited employed around 40 women and there are over 100 Co-ops – the daily wabe of these women is said to have doubled over the last few years due to the popularity of Argan Oil. We were all very happy to come away with bulging bags of goodies and a good feeling in our hearts.
