Olive harvest season in Morocco .. all in the fields

Mariam Eltaidi- Chefchaouen (Morocco)

As a woman of ancient Moroccan time, she combines the tales of the ages and the years. With her thin, simple local clothes sitting above the grass of the earth and the January sky with its shy, bristling sun, producing olive seeds. These mature blacks, other red fit for pickling, and a green third waiting for a while.

"The time passes quickly and the sun sets fast," said 60-year-old Rahma, the mother of the six girls, who came from distant cities to help her harvest olives. Aunt Rahma heads the team of her cousin and companion in Fatima Fatima, and their daughters and relatives, as a beehive of every familiarity.

The olive harvest season at the Almuden family in Douar (village) Bani Hamdallah, from the Lower Achmas tribe in the outskirts of Chefchaouen in northern Morocco, is an exceptional annual event, as are most olive production areas in Morocco.

A season in which the distant back to help, and family reunion. The season lasts for about two months, or according to the "yield" (the crop), as explained by Aunt Rahma, who received us in her home and lived with her family and her relatives the atmosphere of harvesting, collecting and sorting olives.

Aunt Rahma believes that misery and fatigue are as much as possible for him, shines before the sun and drinks tranquility and wisdom from the silence of dawn. The fire ignites the "canon" (a traditional coal stove) and the day quotes from it a beam that shines the mountain and the surrounding objects slowly breathe.

The silence is mixed with the sound of the roar of the rooster, the chirping of the birds and the disintegration of the table water that emanates from the heart of the mountain. The voice of Aunt Rahma comes as she hugs the busy day like the morning song.

With the joy of past years, blended with pride, contentment and faith in power, Aunt Rahma says, "Everyone retires at 60, except we, we have been busy with our lives, and we have life in Zaitoun." What is more interesting is the great involvement of women in the genie, a man hardly noticed a field unlike other regions.

All in the fields
Along the road the link between the city of Wazan and Chefchaun and the olives imposes its presence on the scene, an unrivaled dynamic, workers carrying reed and long sticks called here "squat". Others go to fields, farmers on their way to the olive groves, and olive piles on the road at points of sale, and the smell of olive oil emanates from modern and traditional contemporary.

About 11 kilometers from the paved road from the market point of Sunday (the outskirts of Chefchaouen), Al Jazeera Net moved up the mountains towards the Lower Akhmas tribal area through a small, unpopular path established by a local association in cooperation with the locals.

"The houses are now empty, all the fields are in the fields," says the head of the Zaytouna Cooperative for Olive Appreciation in the traditional way, Fatima Al Mouden.

In the olive groves each is engaged in work, some fall from the top olives, and others recline throughout the day gather a grain of grain and dig it. They exchange conversation, and their laughter fills the place.

They are not far from other families in the same scene and rituals themselves, and when they get tired, they pay a little olive and a few dried figs, and bread to fill the jam.

You can barely hear the rustling of olive leaves under the reeds and sticks. The branches move, and the rain of olive leaves is wet.

Valuation of the traditional style
The Women's Cooperative for Olive Valuation traditionally contributes to the support of about 17 women with a portion of olives. They gather after the harvest to sort the olives according to type and size, and prepare it for the table in traditional ways, using the acid, the weed and the expertise of the grandmothers.

After finishing the sorting and sorting, Fatima and her colleagues at night fondle the olives with the stone for two or two halves, or the knife with the knife and fill what is ready in cans.

The olive harvest is collected in the evening, and is divided between "pickling" or conversion of olive oil for personal consumption. Some families sell quantities to wholesalers and olive oil industry investors.

Despite the development of the sector, many still like what they call "stone oil" - the oil extracted through the old stone mill method, which is still used by some inhabitants of some Dwyers.

Abundance of production
The visitor to the northern regions of Morocco notes an abundance of production this year and a demand for workers ($ 10 per day).

"The season is known as an abundance of production, which makes farmers resort to workers to collect the crop," says Tahiri, a co-worker of the Olive Age, with a protest on the outskirts of Chefchaouen.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance forecast in Morocco that the production of olive will reach about two million tons of productive area of ​​957 thousand hectares, a rise of 22.3% compared to the previous agricultural season.