They really do climb trees. A hungry goat snacks on the branches of an argan tree outside Essaouira, Morocco.
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The fruit of the argan tree is slightly larger than an olive and turns brown when ripe. The green outer peel conceals a rock-hard inner nut.
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Goats once did the job of peeling the argan nuts, swallowing the fruit and leaving de-skinned nuts behind in their droppings. This step is now mostly carried out by humans.
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Although goats are forbidden from climbing into Morocco’s argan trees during the summer harvest period, their precarious grazing is a common sight around Essaouira throughout the rest of the year.
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Although goats are forbidden from climbing into Morocco’s argan trees during the summer harvest period, their precarious grazing is a common sight around Essaouira throughout the rest of the year.
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Ripe argan nuts waiting to be peeled. It takes about 130 pounds of raw nuts to yield one liter of oil.
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These hard chestnut-colored shells must be smashed between two stones to extract the white inner kernel of the argan nut.
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Moroccan women painstakingly crush the argan nut with stones to extract the white inner kernel of the argan nut.
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Members of the Tiguemine Argan Cooperative crack open argan nuts to extract the almond-sized inner kernels. Each liter of oil takes one woman a week of handwork to produce.
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The kernels and the broken shells must then be separated by hand.
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To give edible argan oil its distinctive nutty flavor, the kernels are roasted over an open fire.
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The nuts are then ground into a paste from which the oil is later pressed.
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The Tiguemine Argan Cooperative cooperative charges around $30 for each of these half-pint bottles of cosmetic argan oil.
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