Olives & Snow
Kendra Elise's class on a field trip to the olive oil factory - a very important place for Morocco, who is the third-largest exporter of olive oil in the world! A quick lesson for you - 1 - Olive growers bring in their olives to be weighed and tested for acidity - the more acid, the poorer the quality and the less they get paid
2 - The olives are washed, stems and leaves are sucked off and used as kindling in fires
3 - Olives are crushed with the pit which has antioxidants in it to preserve the oil
4 - Olives go through a separator machine which separates the olives into water, oil and pulp
5 - The oil is ready to go home with the farmers within an hour of them coming
6 - The pulp is dried and made into bricks used for burning - thus using every part of the little, lowly olive!
Finally - our first snow - January 30! It was so fun to see all the kids out and enjoying it! In the end, there were 7 huge headless snowmen (the one in the front fell) - the snow had packed so easily that everyone made enormous bodies and no one - even with their daddy's help - could lift even the second ball on! 
Sledding on Saturday with Rachida who hasn't been in years - so hard to get outside the towns for people with no cars
Gerald's panorama shot
The man himself
posted by Reimer Ramblings @ 11:07 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
how amazing that you had snow!!! Love those facts about the olives!
you failed to mention the reason for plastic bags on the feet of the olive factory tourists... were they tramping on some olives to make oil themselves? (murmurs *child labor*)
yay for the buffalo sweatshirt!
- heidi
Yes, Sophie - This is the coldest city in Africa! A few years ago we got 2 1/2 meters (accumulated). These last two years we haven't had too much. And Heidi - we were hoping you wouldn't notice the evidence of child labor! Actually, the overly-concerned teachers wanted to prevent the kids from slipping in the olive oil so had the kids put bags on their shoes. I personally thought this made it more dangerous! It didn't matter anyway, because the latest shipment had been plums, so the floor was exactly the opposite - so sticky it took the bags right off!
I am amazed that people make such a big deal about where the Oilve Oil comes from. The greeks, the spanish and the Moroccans all say theirs is the best. I really did enjoy the table olive at most meals. You could have come here to get your fix of snow this year. We have hopes that most of the snow will melt over the next week of 40's and 50's. Kiss the girls for us.
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