The Argania tree only grows in a small area of Morocco.  The fruit of this tree is the source of argan oil.  The tree is very thorny, but goats don’t mind and they climb the trees to eat the fruits.  They expel the seeds which are collected and processed.  The outer shells are removed and the interior “nut” ground and squeezed for its oil.  When the outer shell is ground with it, the product is considered inferior.  The fruits are beginning to ripen now and will continue to do so through June.  Herders keep their goats from the trees until the fruits are ripe enough for argan oil production.

Argania trees grow beside the road leading to Essaouira, a beach town on the Atlantic.  We stopped at a goat filled tree on our way — the goats did not seem to be eating too much and they looked like large ornaments just hung in the tree, sort of weird Christmas tree decorations.

We visited a women’s co-op which processes the seeds into the oil.  The women all looked so unhappy that I did not take too many pictures of them – I imagined that the price of having a job was enduring the shame of the visitors’ cameras, or may it is just that the work is so physically demanding and certainly boring.

Click on any photo to enlarge. Click arrow to the right to advance to next photo.